Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited

President’s Corner
Mike Bryant (mjbryant1954@hotmail.com)

Newsletter

Seems like every year the holiday season sneaks up on us. With the demands of the holidays and cooler weather settling in, my fishing time tends to drop. This year is no exception. It’s mid-November and I have been on a stream only a handful of times in the past six weeks. In October, we did manage to camp at Smokemont and fish for four days. We really never did figure out what the fish were up to. Bill, a couple of his good friends and I fished hard every day. We caught fish, but the number of fish and the size were definitely down from previous fall trips. The water was great. Cool, clear and good flow. Yet the fish just weren’t interested. But it was great to be out, even with 29 degree mornings!
But overall, I have no complaints about the fishing this year. I’ve had the opportunity to fish in the Everglades, small mountain streams in Colorado, spring fed creeks in Pennsylvania, as well as our local Park streams and tailwaters. And I had the opportunity to return to Lynn Camp Prong! Great memories.

As the weather cools down, I will be ramping up my fly tying. The Fly Tyer’s Weekend held in early November was a success. Nearly fifty tyers demonstrated their skills and knowledge. I had the opportunity to tie, but also met some incredibly talented tyers as well.

Last month, we delivered a $15,000 check to the Fisheries Dept. of the Great Smoky Mountain Park. Earlier in the year we donated $4,000 to the Friends of the Smokies Fisheries Scholarship Fund (supporting the hiring of interns in the Park Fisheries Department), bringing our total donation to $19,000 for the year. Not bad!! We had the opportunity to meet the new Park Superintendent Cassius Cash at the check donation ceremony. He was well aware of the Chapter’s on-going support and showed his appreciation. You can read the press release in the newsletter.

Looking ahead, we will be voting on next year’s Board of Directors at the December 3 meeting. The slate of candidates is listed further down in this newsletter. We’ve accomplished a lot in the past year, none of which would have happened without the leadership each officer and board member. And I am looking forward to keeping our momentum going forward with next year’s Board.

Membership Meeting (Thursday, December 3)
At the December 3 meeting, Justin Murdock will be presenting his learnings on didymo (invasive algae). Justin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Tennessee Tech University. His work on didymo included assessing the distribution and impact that didymo has on our local waters as well as best practices for geardisinfection. A $10,000 grant from the Tennessee license plate conservation fund (managed by the Tennessee Council of Trout Unlimited) helped support Justin’s research. This will be an educational and enlightening presentation; one you don’t want to miss. We meet again at Calhoun’s in Maryville. Social hour and dinner starts at 6:00pm and the business meeting followed by the presentation at 7:00pm. As always,you do not have to buy dinner to attend. Everyone is welcome!

Be safe and I’ll see you at the December 3 rd meeting.
-Mike

Tellico River Delayed Harvest Areas is now from mouth of North River upstream to the Tennessee/North Carolina state line. This is a big improvement from Turkey creek to mouth of North River area that it was before.  Temperatures in the upper area in late spring are more suited for trout.  Plus this move the Delayed Harvest Areas out of a big winter whitewater kayaking areas.  This should cut down with heated encounters between fishermen and kayakers.

Tennessee Delayed Harvest Areas

In the areas listed below, the harvest or possession of trout is prohibited during the catch-and-release season. During the catch-and-release season,only artificial lures are permitted and the use or possession of bait is prohibited.

Hiwassee River:

Appalachian Powerhouse downstream to L&N Railroad Bridge.

•Catch-and-release season is Oct 1 – last day of Feb.

•From Mar 1 – Sep 30, trout creel limit is 7 trout of all species combined and only 2 may be brown trout.

Paint Creek:

Paint Creek Camp-ground downstream to mouth at French Broad River.

•Catch-and-release season is Oct 1 – last day of Feb.

Piney River:

Cumberland Trail State Park downstream to Highway 27 Bridge.

•Catch-and-release season is Nov 1 – last day of Feb.

Tellico River:

Mouth of North River upstream to the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.

•Catch-and-release season is Oct 1 – Mar 14.

Good Fishing

Joe <((((<

P r e s i d e n t ’ s C o r n e r

Mike Bryant (mjbryant1954@hotmail.com)

Newsletter

Three grown men standing in a stream staring at bugs swarming up in the tree tops. Waiting and watching. Waiting for the swarm of male and female tricos to complete their courtship and find their way down to the stream where the female will lay her eggs and die. But there we were waiting and watching. Finally the swarm did make its way down and the trout started to show themselves by coming to the surface to sip these tiny mayflies for breakfast. A small (size #22?) trico fly with a CDC wing did the trick in fooling some browns and rainbows. Nice fish with plenty of color. On our way up to the TU Annual meetings in Scranton, Pennsylvania Dick Geiger and I fished with guide Tom Baltz (Anglers Adventures 717-468-7438) in south central PA. I had met Tom while attending one of his fly tying classes several years ago. Tom is a great guide, knowledgeable of the local waters and history. We fished spring creeks including Yellow Breeches, Big Springs and Letort. Okay, we practiced our casting on the Letort. A high pressure, low water and sun had the fish undercover. But we did catch some nice browns, rainbows and brookies (at least Dick did) on Yellow Breeches and Big Springs. Tom is an incredible fly tier and great guide.

After fishing, we made our way up to Scranton to attend the 2015 TU Annual meetings. I thought the meetings were very well done. It was a great opportunity to meet and learn from like-minded conservationists. Tennessee was well represented, and received several awards and major recognition at the meetings. You can read about the meetings and awards in this newsletter. One cool program that I learned more about is the 5 River program. TU established the 5 Rivers program to facilitate the development of fly fishing clubs in colleges around the country. It’s a great opportunity to connect and cultivate our future leaders. We are currently working with students at UT and Vanderbilt to establish 5 River clubs at their colleges. I expect to see more college 5 Rivers programs in the future.

Our Trout in the Classroom programs are now up and running at six of our local schools. Alcoa Middle School will start back up in the winter session after some major school changes are behind them. As I’ve reported before, we have three new schools starting this Fall. Many thanks to our volunteers for all their efforts. A special THANK YOU goes to Ernie Frey who help not only helped his school, but provide his time and expertise to the three new schools. Thanks Ernie!!

Many thanks to Bill Clabough, the Executive Director of the Foothills Land Conservancy for a great program on the mission and activities of his  organization. Trout Unlimited is a conservation organization. It’s important to be knowledgeable of other like-minded conservation organizations so we can collectively work to preserve and restore our natural resources. We are blessed with many great natural resources in the region, but we have to be careful not to take them for granted.

Make sure to mark your calendars for Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8. The 2nd annual Fly Tyers Weekend will be held in Townsend. It should be a great time and it’s free. I’ll be tying both days, but don’t let that stop you from coming. More information is listed in the newsletter.

Fall is here, the leaves are turning. Soon the big browns will be showing themselves in the Park and I will likely be frustrated again in my attempts to fool them. Oh well, the rainbows and brookies are still there. I hope you can attend the October meeting. I will see you there.

Mike