The Roberson family of Benton County has been carrying on fishing traditions along the Tennessee River for generations. Billy Roberson is a 5th generation commercial fisherman and netmaker. Along with the skills and knowledge of commercial fishing, the art of building nets has been passed down through his family. Specifically, Billy is one of the few remaining living fishermen along the Tennessee River who knows how to build gill nets and dips nets by hand. Billy explains, “Building gill nets was taught to me by my mother, who has been building them for commercial fishermen for the last 50 years.” He learned how to make dip nets from his brother and has been making them for two decades. Billy recalls, “Living along the Tennessee river my whole life, I have always been in contact with fishermen, either commercial or recreational, who have fished in our local area. In the past my grandfather made dip nets to sell and was well known for them. I can remember vividly when I was young and would be with him that people would always come up to him wanting to buy a dip net from him, whether we were at a local store or gas station.” Billy’s grandparents began fishing in the 1940s. When asked about his life as a fisherman, James Roberson once said, “I ain’t got but one thing to say: Enjoy everything you do. Get all the experience you can at anything you can. I wouldn’t take nothin for the years I spent on the river.”
Commercial fishermen have been using gill nets for centuries. Gill nets are used to catch catfish, buffalo fish, and paddlefish. Billy writes, “Gill nets are constructed with floats on one rope and leads on another rope with webbing tied to each. When properly placed in the water, the two lines separate, and the webbing is pulled apart and forms a wall. A tie down string is placed at each float to pull the net down to a certain size. This causes a bag in the net to help capture the fish. A brick is placed on each end to anchor it down in the water.”
Despite their important history, nets are rarely, if ever, made by hand today. After the middle of the 20th century, cotton nets were replaced by synthetic fibers and polypropylene rope. Over the past several decades, machine made nets have flooded the market, making hand-built nets all but obsolete. While mass-produced nets are much more inexpensive, their quality pales in comparison to hand made ones. Knowledge of how to build them is extremely rare. Billy explains, “Other than myself I only know of two other people in our area that still build dip nets or gill nets.” Billy believes in the profound importance of carrying on this endangered tradition: “I believe this art form should be passed down because it shows how people were once self-reliant and didn’t have to depend on commercial manufacturing in order to obtain goods in which to work with.”
Apprentice Joshua Roberson, Billy’s son, desires to continue the art form and honor his storied family legacy. As part of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program this year, Billy will work with Joshua on how to tie and build a dip net and how to construct and build a gill net. Billy explains, “[Joshua] became interested in the art when he learned that it has been passed down thru our family and wanted to keep the tradition alive. He has built several dip nets before but has never built a gill net. The lessons he has learned in building dip nets will cross over into building gill nets seamlessly because it involves a lot of the same knot tying procedures.”
Joshua is eager to carry on this important family tradition, stating, “I have always known about tying dip nets because my great grandfather was well known in our local area for it, so we have a lot of family photos of him with nets or tying nets. I personally learned how to build dip nets about 15 years ago from my father. I would like to increase my knowledge of how to tie dip nets, hopefully to be able to get faster in the process and to increase my overall quality of the finished net. I would also like to learn how to tie a gill net because that is a skill that I have never learned how to do.” This tradition plays a significant role in his family and community life, as well as connecting the community to the natural world around them: “Since I grew up in a commercial fishing family, I have always been around others in our local community that have depended on the same resources. Our area of the Tennessee River has always been known for its abundance of commercial and recreational fishermen, so I believe these skills should be passed on to future generations.” Joshua hopes to one day pass on these skills to his 7-year-old son.
