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'Spending time with family' | Fishing pond opens at T.O. Fuller State Park

A new place for the community to fish is now available at T.O. Fuller State Park. A youth fishing rodeo kicked off the opening.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A spot for the community to reel in some fish is the newest attraction at T.O. Fuller State Park. The park’s two-acre pond opened Saturday morning with a youth fishing rodeo. 

The new pond is stocked with 4,000 pounds of catfish, and organizers said they plan on hosting another fishing rodeo in the fall. 

“We’ve brought the grandkids out here just to spend some time with them,“ park-goer Jim Logan said. 

Logan said that the time spent at the park was time for both him and his grandchildren to unplug (time spent away from T.V. or video games) and time to “just enjoy a nice morning.”

“My youngest grandson—this is his first time to go fishing,” Logan said. “The second grandson I have—he’s been [fishing] before, so he thinks he’s a pro.“

Logan said he aimed to teach his grandchildren the “dos and don'ts” of fishing as part of learning the craft. 

“Sometimes you think about how many fish you can catch, but really it’s just about spending time with family,” he said.

At the beginning of the month T.O. Fuller State Park has also introduced a new walking and biking trail made completely from recycled tires. 

The trail is more than 2.5 miles long and made from rubber crumbs made from old tires. Officials said it is one of the longest rubber-bearing trails in the U.S.

The creators said volunteers and contractors gathered more than 24,000 dumped tires including passenger, commercial truck and heavy equipment tires, which had been illegally dumped around the park. The cleanup had 450 registered volunteers and 10,000 of those tires collected in one day.

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