Kermit Harris (Photo by Jay Paul)
Situated at the far western end of the tidal James River, Great Shiplock Park is a fishing paradise. Here, perhaps more than at any other park in Richmond city limits, most of the patrons are occupied with catching the big one.
Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t serious fishermen at Pony Pasture or at the Pipeline Rapids walkway. But at Great Shiplock, there aren’t any swimming holes, and there are a lot more lines in the water. On the far side, where the riverbank meets the lapping waves, fishermen dot the shoreline, tending to multiple poles and trotlines at once. Meanwhile, a crowd gathers daily by the canal lock that gives the park its name.
“There’s always a lot of us just here chilling,” says Kermit Harris, 64. “Laying back, talking, fishing, you know.” The spot serves as a social gathering place, and the crowd swells and shrinks as steadily as the tide, but the focus is always on fishing.
“I like fishing — I enjoy the sport of it,” Harris says. Besides fishing for relaxation, he sometimes brings back catfish to his Richmond neighborhood to share. Others at Shiplock Park are looking for shad to cut up for catfish bait.
When the water gets warm in late March, striped bass and American shad swim upriver to spawn, and the park is packed to the gills. The pier at Shiplock Park, which sits empty during the winter, is jammed so tight in the spring that finding a spot is difficult, even for regulars.
Harris isn’t concerned about the competition. “I’ve got me a canoe,” he says. “I’ll be out fishing in the middle of the river, where nobody on the shore can reach me.”
