Two Fishing Licenses For The Same Lake?

By Mark Hicks, Bristol Herald Courier, Va.

Aug. 5–It used to be that you could fish with either a Tennessee or Virginia fishing license on either side of South Holston Lake. I’d like to know why it changed? Is there any possibility it will be changed back?

Dave Peltier

Bristol, Va.

Officials I spoke with from both states have a different view of the situation, which centers on a reciprocal agreement.

Such agreements are struck when a body of water stretches between the states, and each permits people to fish with the other state’s license.

Tennessee officials claim they had a South Holston Lake reciprocal agreement with Virginia that expired — for lack of a better term — some time in the early to middle 1990s. Virginia officials say no such agreement was ever in place.

The bottom line, as Fred Leckie, assistant director of fisheries for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, put it, Tennessee doesn’t want an agreement and they “don’t want our people to fish on the entire lake.”

Allen Ricks, information specialist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, confirmed that, “Virginia wants the whole lake or nothing.” He said the two states once had an agreement that allowed anglers with Virginia licenses to fish on the Tennessee portion of the lake to the U.S. Highway 421 bridge. And fishermen with Tennessee licenses were permitted to fish the entire Virginia portion.

With roughly 80 percent of South Holston in Tennessee and 20 percent in Virginia, setting the Virginia limit at the bridge afforded “generally an equal amount,” Ricks said.

Leckie, who has been with the department for 18 years, said such an arrangement “would not make a true reciprocal agreement. It didn’t make sense to us to draw a line.”

Officials in both states said they have reciprocal agreements with other border states where a body of water flows over the state line.

Leckie said Virginia’s agreements are all-or-nothing with North Carolina and Maryland, to name a couple. Bill Reeves, fish management chief for TWRA, said Tennessee’s reciprocal agreements with other states include restrictions where licenses are valid.

For example, Reeves said on Kentucky Lake, which is in north Middle Tennessee, bridges span both the Tennessee and Kentucky portions of the water and anglers from both states are allowed to fish between the two structures. Meanwhile, on Pickwick Lake in West Tennessee, three states converge and fishermen from Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee are permitted to fish in an overlapping section where the states meet, but landmarks like an island, bridge and a buoy define the boundaries.

Ricks said most recently — probably around 1997 or 1998 — Tennessee officials tried to reach a reciprocal agreement with Virginia but were unsuccessful.

Reeves said no effort is currently under way to “renew” the reciprocal agreement, adding “there’s no way to make things equal.”

Leckie concurred that no such negotiations are in the works or planned for the future, conceding that Tennessee’s desire to limit access for Virginia anglers is the catch. But he didn’t rule out the two states reaching an accord.

“We would very much be interested in making a reciprocal agreement with Tennessee at any time,” he said, adding later, “I think it would be a great benefit to both sides.”

In the meantime, if Virginia anglers want to fish in the Tennessee portion of South Holston Lake, the cost of a non-resident Tennessee fishing license is $41 per year or $16.50 for three days. For Tennessee fishermen, a non-resident Virginia license is $36 for a year and $16 for five days.

MARK HICKS is assistant city editor at the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at (276) 645-2546 or by e-mail at . Questions can be mailed to Question Mark, Bristol Herald Courier, P.O. Box 609, Bristol, VA 24203.

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