An effort to regulate trotlines — unmanned fishing lines studded with hooks that are strung across some Tennessee waterways — has stalled in the Legislature, frustrating paddler groups who say they pose a safety hazard on the state’s increasing crowded rivers and streams.
Rep. Paul Sherrell and Sen. Paul Bailey, both Sparta Republicans, earlier this year introduced a bill that would regulate the lines’ placement and establish a right to sue by anyone who died or suffered injuries as a result of becoming entangled in them.
