If we allow the Elk to be turned into a special trophy stream, it will be come the domain of grave, serious men who turn recreation into getting and having and keeping. The reality is that all of our streams are in trouble and not from over fishing by rednecks. They are in trouble because of non-point source pollution, because of agricultural and commercial runoff, they are in trouble because of the continuing effects of industrial greed in this country. All our rivers run dirty brown for months at a time because of siltation. Tennessee is the worst state in the nation for this kind of water pollution.
Reality is different from the pretty picture.
The recent problems on the Elk had nothing to do with corn men on the river. This is bad biology, it is bad economics, it is bad politics. And it is a waste of a public resource. Years ago, when I began fishing the Elk, it was a near-trophy stream. I could walk the bank trail for miles and spot very big fish in nearly every large hole or pool.