Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited

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

Newsletter

WOW!! I’m still totally blown away over how successful our 2014 Troutfest Banquet & Auction was on April 25. The food was great! The facility and services were great! The donated prizes were phenomenal! Everyone had a great time.We awarded the 2013 Eddie George Award to James Locke. We honored Steve Moore’s long and successful service with the Park by establishing the Steve Moore Youth Education Fund. And, oh by the way, did I mention that we raised in total about $20,000!!!!  Wow, amazing!  What a great time!

The Troutfest team, led by Chairman Joe McGroom, did an incredible job.  Donation Chairman Chuck James and team did an outstanding job at soliciting donations. It never ceases to amaze me how giving and supportive folks are here in east Tennessee where we call home.

Thank you to everyone and every business that provided donations.  Thank you to everyone who attended the banquet and participated in the auction.  And thank you to all of the volunteers who gave their time and talents to making this a successful event.

If you were able to attend Troutfest this year, many thanks for coming and supporting our efforts.  I hope everyone will consider attending next year.

On a personal note, as much as I enjoyed Troutfest this year, I’m happy it’s behind us. It’s time to focus on fishing. This is my favorite time of the year. Warmer weather makes for happy bugs making for happy trout.  I’ve been fishing mostly the smaller mountain streams lately.  Water flows for the most part have been good. Bugs are coming off the water.  Seems early, but I’ve seen yellow sallies and yellow mayflies already.

Remember, the May 22 Chapter meeting will be at Calhoun’s in Maryville. Social hour and dinner starts at 6:00 pm.  You do not need to order dinner to attend.  Our May program will be something a little different. Dr. Dave Unger will present a program on black bears.  The program will interest anyone who spends time in the national parks or other wild areas, including hikers.

Our future will have its challenges, but I’m more confident than ever that we will continue to proactively work together to conserve, protect, and restore our natural resources.  I hope to see you at the May meeting!!
Thanks,
Mike

Just the place to spend a hot summer day.  The deep water from Fontana lake keep Cheoah, Calderwood and Chillhowee lake cold thought out the summer,  making them a great place to beat the heat doing the hot days. Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower manges the lakes and has done some improvements by adding  five Canoe Campsite on Calderwood lake and Canoe Portages on all three of the lakes. Calderwood lake is stocked with 7,015 Rainbow Trout from Tennessee and another 7,000 Rainbow Trout from North Carolina.  You can fish for Trout with licenses by either state in the entire reservoir as long as you are in a boat.  So get out your Kayak or Canoe and spend a great day fishing.  I have added some links below to some maps to help you get around and the article Dixie’s Fabulous Finger Lakes that was in South Trout Magazine.

Canoe Portage and Campsite Locations

Recreation sites – Calderwood and Chilhowee Reservoirs map

Dixie’s Fabulous Finger Lakes

Good Fishing <((((<

Joe

Plan to be a part of our annual Little River Clean-up on Saturday, May 3. This is an important part of our mission to preserve and protect watersheds in the Park.  All are invited. We will meet at the Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area.  Plan to be there by 9:00 am.  Matt Kulp and Charlie Chmielewski will lead the cleanup efforts.  After the clean-up, we’ll provide lunch around 12:00. There will be plenty of fishing opportunities and fellowship in the afternoon.

We hope to see you there.

Joe   <((((<