STREAMS OF THOUGHT—NOTES FROM THE CHAPTER PRESIDENT
Light a campfire and everyone’s a storyteller – John Geddes
Camping Cataloochee, live indoor meetings on hold, and Little River Cleanup. Little River Chapter held our fall fish camp at the Cataloochee area of GSMNP this past weekend. It is our favorite place among many good places. And yes, the evening campfire was a stage where all were players and audience with many shared stories and laughs. Weather was sunny, forest beautiful, daytime temperatures mild, and nighttime temps cool to a little cold. If after reading this you are saying “I bet he didn’t catch many fish”—you’d be right. I won the fewest catch award while Ernie and Joyce did very well, and Dave and Larry good. Our near-professional and Trout Camp Alumni Will out did us all. I had the pleasure of watching some of his success while fishing with him and realizing that I, as Trout Camp Director, played a small role in starting him down this road that he is now traveling with great enthusiasm and commitment. Frankly, this weekend reminded me that getting out, sharing with fellow anglers, and fishing has many more rewards than just catching fish.
Indoor meetings continue to be frustrated. Our normal venue, the Blue Tick Tavern in Maryville has been having staffing problems, both with numbers and COVID infections. The former limited their menu offerings and the latter forced them to shut their doors for our planned August meeting and then forced us to cancel the September meeting because of uncertainty of whether they would be open, as well as uncertainty around the current COVID surge in Blount County. At last glance they appear to be open on a limited basis. We have been trying to find reasonably priced and easily accessed alternative venues without much success. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. We are hoping to hold a live meeting in October.
Our, at one time, annual cleanup of the Little River in the Park is back! It will be held Saturday, the 25th of September. Please come and join us if you are able. There is more in separate articles in the Newsletter. Also, the Pistol Creek Cleanup is in the future. We are working to coordinate with Keep Blount County Beautiful and agree on a date either in November or early December.
Tight Lines!
Steve Y
