P r e s i d e n t ’ s C o r n e r
Mike Bryant (mjbryant1954@hotmail.com)
After sitting in my truck for about an hour waiting out the downpour, Buzz and I put on our waders, grabbed our gear and headed towards the Clinch River. I am anxious to learn to fish the Clinch as well as other regional tailwaters. Buzz uses float tubes on this stretch of water that allowed us to reach sections that otherwise were too deep even when TVA wasn’t generating. I was surprised to still see some small sulfurs coming off the water and fish rising to them. But we nymphed fished most of the time in the remaining three hours we had available before the surge of water from the generator reached us and forced us off the water.
Buzz was a great guide. He put me onto some nice strong and feisty rainbows. I learned a lot from Buzz regarding where the fish lie in the shoals, what they eat and when, and some great accounts of really big fish in the river. Several 12-14” rainbows were brought to hand, with twice that number in hook-ups, including one really nice fish that I lost on the third jump. I was surprised at the strength and fight these fish have. All-in-all, a great day to be out. About a week later I had the opportunity to return the favor by taking Buzz up to Lynn Camp Prong.
After the customary hike up, we finally put in the water. Though the water was cool enough, it was very low. Some of the typical runs and pools where I have caught brookies in the past were either too shallow or didn’t hold any water at all, causing us to cover a lot of water looking for fish. The morning started out okay with dry flies, though the fish we caught were on the smaller size. I tried nymphs throughout the day without much luck. I think we both caught the majority of our fish on dry flies. At the end of the day the surface of the water had a solid glare, so I decided to try a fly that I thought I would be able to see in the glare. The MkFrumpy is a modification I made from a fly originally designed by a guide out west for cutthroats. This thing has every trigger known to man, woman and fish – trailing shuck, red floss, yellow and tan foam, a hackled collar and of course rubber legs. I’m thinking about adding some fuzzy dice to the next version. But that fly drove the brookies crazy. If they missed it on the first attempt they would chase it down. I caught my big fish of the day on that MkFrumpy. You have to keep it interesting and fun! Another great day to be out!
In case you haven’t heard, we are sad to report that Ken Henderson passed away in August after dealing with health issues. Ken was one of the founding members of the Little River Chapter and volunteered countless hours to support the chapter, Park and youth education. Please read the article in the Newsletter for more information on Ken.
We had a full house at the August meeting! Many thanks to Alex Bell for his excellent presentation on the Western North Carolina Fly Fishing Trail. Alex and folks have done a great job of communicating fishing opportunities in western North Carolina, highlighting fifteen different streams. Maybe we could arrange a chapter fishing trip to NC in the near future?
At the August meeting, we also awarded Steve Young with a beautiful Sage rod custom built by Steve Moore. Steve Young won the Eddy George award for 2014. He has been an outstanding volunteer and leader and we’re fortunate to have Steve as a member of our Chapter. Congratulations Steve!
One final note of business. The Little River Chapter Board of Directors has decided not to sponsor the Troutfest Banquet & Auction next year (2016). Key reasons that factored into our decision were the heavy resource demands needed to pull off the event and a belief that maintaining the same Troutfest format will become stale over time. The BOD is committed to continue fundraising efforts to support the GSMNP Fisheries Department and our education efforts (Steve Moore Youth Education Fund). We’ll share details on new fundraising opportunities in the near future, but I wanted to share with our membership our decision regarding future Troutfests.
Be safe. I hope to see you at the September meeting.
-Mike
