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
