Ash in stomachs.

Damage to scales and gills.

Just a few of the items on a laundry list of problems with fish swimming in the Clinch and Emory rivers around the fly ash spill.

Many times people don't like to eat something if it doesn't look good.

Well, that's the problem TWRA is finding in their initial fish sampling.

Disturbing news for one avid Roane county fisherman who lives on the Emory river.

"This is our favorite time. We go rock fishing and catch 25, 30, 40 pound rock fish. Course, my dad is eighty-three and when there's bad weather I don't work a whole lot so we get to go fishing a lot," says James Pierce.

For Pierce and his dad, fishing is a way of life.

Since the TVA ash slide, Pierce says he hasn't been fishing in the Emory River because he doesn't know what the ash is doing to the fish.

"So we was waiting for test levels. Haven't heard none yet," says Pierce.

But the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has been doing fish sampling since last week for bass and catfish.

Turns out, other than some shad and a drum, that's initially all they found.

"There seems to be a great reduction in the number of different species of fish here in the area of event," says Dan Hicks with the TWRA.

The TWRA tested up to a mile away from the Kingston plant and found fish with lesions, discoloration of the gills, scales missing, ash in the gills, and that was on the outside.

Hicks says, "We found catfish with 33 grams of ash in it's stomach."

Hicks says the ash could cause a number of fish kills.

"These fish are really stressed. That's what kills fish in water," says Hicks.

After hearing the physical report, Pierce says he doesn't anticipate bringing home a stringer of fish anytime soon.

"We keep enough to eat when we want to have a fish fry but I don't believe I'll eat none out of this lake for a while," says Pierce.

Hicks says, "We don't want the public to feel like that there's a major emergency, on the other hand if you catch a fish out here in the water it's probably going to have ash on it or in it."

Hicks says the tissue samples have now been sent to the state lab in nashville for analysis to test for metals, PCB's, and arsenic.

He says the results could take from six to eight weeks.