Rise - April 2019 by coldwaterpress

APRIL 2019

Volume 1 • Number 2

LAND O’ SKY TROUT UNLIMITED — Serving Members Across Buncombe, Madison and Yancey Counties In Western North Carolina

CONTENTS

APRIL 2019 Volume 1 • Number 2

4 6 8 12 14 16 18 20 24

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Cliff’s Notes Chapter Meetings Conservation Outlook 2019 Fly Fishing Film Tour Chapter Stocking Program Off the Bench: The Half Pint Midge Membership Update A Current Affair On The Calendar

Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia F I L M

P R E M I E R

A French Broad River Social, Showing and Panel Discussion 6:00 p.m. April 28 • New Belgium Brewhouse • Asheville Limited $5 ticketed seating available at riverlink.org — others welcome to stand Check Out the Film Trailer Here: https://vimeo.com/66103145

The event will feature the Asheville premier of the 1-hour documentary “Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia”. The film, produced by the non-profit Freshwaters Illustrated, explores the rivers and streams of the Southern Appalachian region, North America’s most biologically rich waters. It follows the work of conservation biologists and explorers throughout the region, and reveals both the beauty and vulnerability of this aquatic life, and how people are finding ways to protect it.

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Cliff’sNotes

Rivers, opening day, a I

have always been fascinated by water, although I must admit I’m not overly fond of water used for washing dishes (unless someone else or a machine is doing the washing). I’m particularly fond of water that has trout in it, preferably water that gurgles over rocks or glides through a pool, but stillwater will also suffice. If there are no trout then almost any other fish will do, but I’ll pass up local water with three-pound bass and drive a few hours to fish for nine-inch trout at the drop of a fly. Fortunately for most of my life I’ve lived less than a three-hour drive from some of the best trout fishing in the United States; in New York it was the Beaverkill and its smaller sister the Willowemoc and now, well, all of you know what we have here in Western North Carolina. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve fallen in love with rivers, and a love affair with a river isn’t such a bad thing. The earliest documentation of my affair with rivers is a slide taken on a family outing on the Beaverkill just before it merges with the Willowemoc to form Junction Pool. That I was the only one in the picture fishing is no surprise since my dad, from whom I inherited my love of fishing, took the picture and none of the other family members were overly interested in fishing. I remember that I was using a Jitterbug, hardly an offering suited to trout, but even at the tender age of nine I had already developed a preference for artificials which made my conversion to fly fishing a few years later an almost preordained event. As an aside, Junction Pool is home to the legendary Two-Headed Trout. As the legend goes, it was on its way upstream to spawn and couldn’t decide whether to stay in the Beaverkill or go up the Willowemoc 4

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so it remained there and developed a second head — thing spawned by this fish was the fund-raising dinne prior to the opening of the trout season.

Speaking of opening days, one of the first books I rea Robert Traver. The first chapter recounts the adventu excursions as recorded in his stream diary. I thought fishing trips so in 1970 I started my own fishing log. I I would digitalize my records to see what conclusion dates, hatches, weather, stream conditions, etc.

So what did my records show? The only useful concl streamer in August.

The following year, thanks to a wetter summer, I fishe catch a trout. So I will state for the record that the b that the more you fish, the better you get at it and th pressure, moon phase, water temperature, and such fishin’.

Here’s hoping you can go fishing as often as you wan

and fishing logs

— one heading up each river. Apparently the only er of the same name held each year in Roscoe, NY

Beaverkill

ad about trout fishing was “Trout Madness”,by ures and misadventures of his opening day it would follow his example to have a record of my I kept it up for about twenty years before I decided ns I could draw from compiling and sorting the

lusion was that I had never taken a trout on a

ed streamers in August almost exclusively until I did best advice I can give you based on my records is he more fish you catch. Forget about barometric truck: You ain’t gonna catch any fish if you ain’t

Pool on the Beaverkill

nt to.

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CHAPTER MEETINGS Our Next Chapter Meeting is April 9! If you’ve ever talked to Jake you know he’s willing to go with the flow. So let’s come prepared with lots of questions about the current state and future of our trout waters — from high country wild streams to Hatchery Supported Fisheries, and see where the conversation leads us. It’s sure to be an informative presentation, great conversation and a fun evening!

ake sure our April 9 chapter meeting is on your calendar. We’ll meet at REI upstairs in the community room at 7:00 p.m. as usual. Get there early to visit with your friends and meet new folks, and think about straggling over to the Thirsty Monk for a post-meeting libation. Some folks have been known to make that walk! Our speaker for the evening is Jake Rash, and he’ll be treating us an to a presentation he’s titled “Overview of Selected Wildlife Resources 6

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Commission Trout Management Efforts.” If you haven’t been to the NCWRC’s Trout (http://ncwildlife.org/trout) page in a while, you’re missing out on some great stuff. They’ve added quite a bit of interesting and helpful content specifically about trout fishing, conservation and restoration efforts here in western North Carolina and even have put together a super-handy hatch chart in collaboration with the state council of TU!

Jake is Coldwater Research Coordinator for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), where he assists with the coordination of applied research and management of the state’s trout resources. He received his B.S. in Zoology from NC State University (2000) and M.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences from Virginia Tech (2003). After graduate school, he worked with freshwater mussels as a Research Specialist at Virginia Tech until he joined the NCWRC. He became an American Fisheries Society Certified Fisheries Professional in 2008. Although he spends his days at work thinking about fish, he enjoys spending his free time trying to find them with monofilament and fly lines.

March Meeting Wrap-Up Caleb was kind enough to send his presentation slides to us, along with a link to the presentation given by Matt Kulp last year. You can download either or both of them by clicking the links on this page. We hope to make this a regular practice. Thanks to Caleb for joining us and to all of the Land O’ Sky volunteers who give their time and energy to do this important work while nurturing and building this important conservation partnership in projects that will benefit many generations to come.

efforts in the park. Thanks to our members who showed up and gave him a warm welcome.

e had another fine turnout at our March meeting to hear GSMNP’s Caleb Abramson talk about some of the science and processes involved in their trout restoration

Whether you were or weren’t there, we thought you might benefit from seeing Caleb’s presentation slides. He presented a ton of statistical information and at times it was a little like drinking from a firehose, so it’s nice to be able to go over them and soak the data in at your own pace. APRIL 2019

CONSERVATIO OUTLOOK Jay Hawthorne, Program Chair and Gracia Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill, EQI Labs

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uilding on our conservation update from last month, I thought from time-to-time we’d do a feature piece on one of our key conservation partners — who they are, what they do and the programs where our members can plug in and get involved. This month, we sit down for a little Q&A with Gracia O’Neill, the Assistant Director of EQI (Environmental Quality Institute) Labs in Asheville. Primarily, we’re going to visit about EQI’s participation in the Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE). This program has been described as “the most robust volunteer benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring program in NC” and is going into its 15th year!

Why is water quality monitoring important? We all depend on clean water for drinking, washing, and playing, and many sectors of the economy depend on clean water (think power generation, ecotourism, etc.). If we don‘t monitor our rivers and streams, we‘d have no idea how safe they are for all these and other uses. The NC Div. of Water Resources only has resources to sample a given stream site once every 5 years (at best) so trained volunteers, using rigorous methods, can really help fill in the data gaps of time.

What do you learn from this, and what do you do with the results? EQI just launched a new interactive map to share water quality data collected by volunteers across WNC. It includes results from both of our programs: the Volunteer Water Information Network (VWIN) program conducts chemical water testing and the Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) program examines benthic macroinvertebrate (aquatic insect) communities as indicators of water quality. APRIL 2019

EQI‘s partners, including local governments, non-profit organizations, community groups, and the private sector, use the data to see which streams are improving and declining, track the progress of stewardship projects, and seek grant funding for improvement projects. Community groups have used our data to get local waterways a higher classification rating from the state.The map is on the EQI website at: http://www.eqilab.org/map.php Do you combine this data with others, like Mountain True and TU, who may be doing their own projects? Who else shares your data? All EQI data is shared with the public. MountainTrue regularly combines EQI data with their own bacteria monitoring and state-generated data to create their “State of the French Broad River” report. How long has EQI been doing this? This is the 30th year that the VWIN program has collected chemical data and the 15th year that the SMIE program has collected aquatic insect data. The SMIE program has been recognized as the “most robust volunteer aquatic insect monitoring program in NC” and has been selected by the NC Aquatic Data Hub as the model program for advanced volunteer macroinvertebrate monitoring across NC. What are the most significant changes in water quality that you’ve noticed — positive and negative? From the SMIE program, sites displaying improving water quality (WQ) trends include Pigeon River downstream of Canton, California Creek at Radford Road, Cane River in Yancey County, Reed Creek in Asheville, and 10

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Swannanoa River at Bull Creek. The Pigeon River benthic macroinvertebrates could be improving due to better cooling of wastewater from the paper mill and flooding (the scouring creates new habitat). Sites displaying declining WQ trends include North and South Forks of Mills River, and Cane Creek at Ashworth Creek (Fairview). The Swannanoa River generally declines as it gets closer to Asheville. Generally, sites in agricultural watersheds tend to show a larger gap between spring and fall SMIE scores. The new web map offers trend analysis for VWIN monitoring. What’s the geographic scope of the activities? What waters do you test regularly? EQI has approximately 150 VWIN and 50 SMIE sites throughout WNC. SMIE samples are taken by trained EQI volunteers at pre-established sites in Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, Yancey and Mitchell counties in NC, and 3 sites just over the border in eastern TN. MountainTrue uses SMIE sample methods at about 20 sites in Henderson Co. How much time should I expect to spend in training — and in field sampling? New SMIE volunteers are asked to attend a “new volunteer” training, which covers basic stream ecology, insect identification and sampling methods. Once trained, volunteers work in small groups with experienced leaders to sample a minimum of two sites — once in fall and once in the spring season (2-3 hours per site). Check out our webpage for videos on the SMIE project: http://www.environmentalqualityinstitute.org/smie-training.php

What does the sampling include? SMIE volunteers use kick net leaf pack and visual methods in the field to find as many macroinvertebrates, and as much diversity, as possible. Methods have time limits to ensure comparability of analyses at all sites. Volunteers use ID sheets to help identify insects (with help from the Group Leader) and tally results on a data sheet. A professional biologist or entomologist provides program oversight and quality control. Results from sampling are posted on our website and distributed in our newsletter.

monitoring is somewhat rare, but enormously useful. Long term monitoring reduces the need for extensive field sampling at individual locations. Additionally, the costs of failing to detect and address environmental problems at an early stage can be enormous. Plus, once you finish monitoring you may as well stay out a little longer and see what‘s biting. Are the workdays scheduled or is it a do-it-yourself thing? Is it seasonal?

If I want to learn more on learning about volunteering with EQI, how do I get started?

SMIE sampling generally takes place on weekends in spring (late March through early May) and fall (late September through early November).

The next training for new SMIE volunteers will be on Saturday, April 6 at Haywood Community College. RSVPs are required, but no experience is necessary. For more information about this workshop or volunteering with either the chemical or biological stream monitoring program, please contact EQI at staff@eqilab.org.

Sampling by teams is scheduled by EQI and takes place at pre-established sites established in conjunction with priority streams identified by program partners.

How is EQI funded? The SMIE program is largely funded by the Pigeon River Fund of the Community Foundation of WNC. The VWIN program is largely paid for by fees to partners that want the monitoring done. However, groups or individuals can sponsor a site within either program. How does this work benefit cold water fisheries and anglers? Volunteers are contributing to a long-term data set that is used by partners to seek grant funding for water quality improvement projects. Long-term

We’ll close out with a personal question: why do you do this work? I‘ve been training volunteers for 15 years because I think it‘s a whole lot of fun! I personally find it deeply gratifying to be part of creating a structure that allows community members to contribute to science and the protection of WNC‘s beautiful waterways in a meaningful way. Many thanks to Gracia and EQI for helping us get a clearer picture of their organization and the SMIE project. Talk to you all next month!

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2019 FLY FISHING FILM TOUR

ur thanks to the capacity crowd of 300-plus that packed the event center at Highland Brewing Company for the Asheville showing of the 2019 Fly Fishing Film Tour on Friday, March 22. The screening was sponsored by our friends at Hunter Banks Outfitters, and Highland Brewing provided the perfect blend 12

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of hospitality, food, beer and a terrific space to gather and celebrate the return of spring! We’re pleased to report that the gear raffle was a great success as a chapter fundraiser again this year. The folks at Hunter Banks and our event chairs — Neal Labrie (fundraising chair) and Patrick Brady (chapter secretary) — did a

bang-up job putting together an amazing list of prizes including a Thomas & Thomas rod, Simms waders, boots and packs and lots of other choice gear and accessories. Raffle proceeds were about $2,800 against expenses of about $800, netting the chapter right at $2,000 total for the event.

The F3T, combined with our annual table at the WNC fly expo, are two of our chapter’s biggest fundraisers for the year. We’re happy to report that proceeds from each have held steady or increased gradually from year to year — which means our members and friends continue to support our chapter and its mission at robust levels. Thank you!

Thanks To Our Land O’ Sky Event Volunteers Cliff Albertson

Rick Miale

Patrick Brady

Curt Silvers

Jay Hawthorne

Jeff Skolnick

Neal Labrie

Our LOS volunteer team worked the raffle ticket sales hard, with Jeff Skolnick and Jay Hawthorne prowling the floor and Rick Miale, Neal Labrie, Curt Silvers and Cliff Albertson manning the table. Neal, Cliff, Jay and Rick were also involved in setting up Land O’ Sky’s table and teardown afterwards — with no problems reported except hanging our chapter banner which turned out to be quite the enterprise, apparently. Chapter secretary and Hunter Banks manager Patrick Brady did a great job acting as emcee for the evening, Chapter President Cliff Albertson helped welcome the big crowd and talked a little about Land O’ Sky and our mission, and Vice President Reba Brinkman talked with the crowd about the 2019 Rivercourse program — a summer fly fishing and conservation camp sponsored by the North Carolina Council of TU. Reba serves the council as Administrative Director of the camp. Again, thanks to all who showed up, bought raffle tickets and supported our chapter and this event. We know you had a great time and we hope to see you all again next year! And to our dedicated volunteers who worked a lot of hours and did the heavy lifting to make this happen — we appreciate you! APRIL 2019

CHAPTER STOCKING PROGRAM Rick Miale, Program Chair

Spring Creek / Madison County

North Mills River / Henderson C

n Friday, March 1, eight chapter members and friends “rain-suited and wadered up” to stock Spring Creek in Madison County. Approximately 1,800 rainbow, brown and brook trout were stocked in seven locations along the Delayed Harvest section of the stream near Hot Springs.

Although rain was in the forecast, we stayed mostly dry (at least our top halves). This was a mostly experienced crew and all told the stocking was done in about an hour…so far as we know, setting a modern times record for that creek! We even managed to get the fish safely in the water and the crew safely out. Most of the folks stuck around afterward for a bite and some libations to celebrate these impressive feats.

Plan was to take some of those fish up to the section Ridge Road kept us out and nobody had a set of bol that would have been a bad idea for lots of reasons.

Our next Spring Creek stocking is scheduled for April 4 at 11 a.m. We meet in the lot behind Spring Creek Tavern. Turn right (Andrews Ave) as you cross the tracks — there will be a gravel parking lot on the left. If you look on Google maps, this lot is directly behind Creekside Court. Plan on sticking around afterward — because even if we don’t set a new record we’ll still do that bite and a beverage thing.

onday, March 4, eighteen members and frien North Mills River in Henderson County. This entered the stream in the lower campground section

Instead, volunteers took buckets of fish on a hike up ‘up the creek’....in a positive way of course. Given tha arrived was 31°F and soared all the way to a blisterin amazing job of again safely and carefully tossing fish‘.

Even though no records were this time out, the donu Thanks for those, Cliff!

Our next stocking date for the North Mills is on tap first parking lot as you enter North Mills Campgroun those to issue. We stock in two sections, the lower se can get through the gate, a few of us ride on the bac the dam.

Editor’s note: Our stocking coordinator Rick Miale was away on business for March stockings so Jay Hawthorne took t 14

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County

nds teamed up to do the first 2019 stocking of the s day over 2,000 rainbow, brown and brook trout n.

n near the reservoir, but a locked gate on Trace lt cutters handy. Which probably was good, because

the river trail to get themselves and some fish at the real temperature when the hatchery truck ng 32°F by the time we were done, this crew did an

uts and hot coffee certainly helped the energy level.

at 10 a.m. April 1 — no fooling! We meet at the nd. You will need a pass to park here and we have ection from the lot to the bridge and provided we ck of the hatchery truck to stock Trace Ridge up to

Green River / Polk County

ur chapter doesn’t stock this river, but we’ve had a couple of requests from folks who are interested in heading down there to learn more and help out with the stocking. Pisgah TU stopped its program last year, but a bunch of members and former members who live down that way and fish that stream have created an informal team to help out. They usually meet up about 10:30 a.m. at the FishTop access outside Saluda. It’s a good group of people and sometimes they whip up amazing feeds — last year included a strawberry & cream cheese dutch oven French toast that was darn tasty! The next stocking day is April 4 — same day as Spring Creek so you should do ours instead. Check the DH Stocking schedule for other dates. If you have questions about Spring Creek or North Mills stockings, feel free to contact Rick Miale via email at rickmiale@outlook.com or give him a call at 828.280.1357. The only equipment needed to participate is your wading gear, sunglasses and gloves because a 5-gallon bucket full of healthy fish can be quite a handful and you may get a little soggy in the process. Thanks very much to the people who showed for each stocking event! We appreciate your help and support, and so do our hatchery partners from the NCWRC. We look forward to seeing you out there next month.

these over. That’s probably why the gate was locked at the Mills: they heard he was coming. Just kidding — and thanks, Jay! APRIL 2019

OFF THE BENCH: The Half Pint Midge The tying process:

The Half Pint Midge is a simple pattern to tie, even for beginners. It uses many of the elements in a zebra midge, adding Krystal Flash in a midge size for a tail and wings to make it more tantalizing for trout. A small pinch of dubbing completes the thorax. You should have most of these in your standard supplies, with the possible exception of the midge size of Krystal Flash — and there really is a big difference. The biggest issues you’ll encounter are overdoing the dubbing or crowding the bead too much as you attach the Krystal Flash and build up the body.

 If necessary, mash hook barb. Put bead on hook, mount  C ut 6 strands of Krystal Flash to a few inches in len in vise and start thread behind bead, taking a few wraps rearward to lock thread on hook before trimming the tag end.

Leaving about ½” to the front, secure to top of hook shank a touch behind bead using pinch wrap.

After you’ve tied one or two of these you can knock them out in a couple of minutes each. Our example is black but try them in gray, white, wine, olive and other colors, combinations and sizes. Materials List Item

Description

Hook

Scud/emerger hook in sizes 18-20

Bead

Nickel tungsten, 5/64-inch

Thread

8/0 or 70-denier

Tail/wing buds

Pearl Krystal Flash, midge size

Rib

Small Silver Wire

Thorax

Black Superfine dubbing or Zelon

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 Build slim, slightly tapered body using wraps of tying

thread, up to where you attached the strands of Krystal Flash.

 Take 5-6 open spiral counter-wraps of wire over bod

secure behind flash and helicopter off tag end of w using bobbin to support hook.

ngth. k

 Wrap well into hook bend and return thread to about the  Trim strands to form tail about ½ hook gap in length.

 Secure end of silver wire to near side of hook with end in

dy – wire

 Make a short thin dubbing noodle for thorax (a couple of  Whip finish or use several half-hitches and seat the

 F inish by applying a small drop of head cement to

point, being careful to keep strands on top of hook.

inches). Don’t overdo it! Wrap noodle first BEHIND the Krystal Flash and a take few more wraps between the flash and the bead, using dubbing to pin flash back to simulate wing buds.

knot, then cut your tying thread off close. Trim wings so they extend about ½ way down fly abdomen.

bead hole. Wrap rearward and let thread tension carry wire to far side of hook

thread wraps.

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MEMBERSHIP UPDATE Welcome, New Land O’ Sky Members!

Land O’ Sky Best At Attracting New Members

e’re always glad to have new folks join our family, and we hope you feel right at home. Your membership in Land O’ Sky is included with your TU membership. There are no additional dues or fees, we don’t pass the plate at meetings, and about the worst thing we do is ask you to say hello and introduce yourself so we can all get to know you. As a member of TU, you’re also represented by our state council, NCTU. If you see something that the state council or North Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited is doing, that includes Land O’ Sky so it includes you. If you have questions about your membership in our chapter or in TU, please contact membership chair Roger Parkin. Roger will be happy to answer any questions you might have about volunteer opportunities, leadership roles and other things you can do to help our chapter fulfill its mission. Again, welcome! We’re glad to have you.

New members and transfers in since March 1, 2019 New Members Name

City

Luke Childs Nick George Natha Hake Corin Larsen Patrick Wood

Asheville Arden Weaverville Flat Rock Arden

New TU Business Member Brown Trout Fly Fishing, Brown Hobson

Asheville

Transfers In Mark Buff 18

Fairview APRIL 2019

recent report received from TU and our state council showed that Land O’ Sky led the state of North Carolina last year in new member recruitment. Thanks to all of you for joining up and for spreading the word about our terrific chapter. We believe that together we have something very special here, and this is even more reason to celebrate. Tell others you know about TU — new members can sign up and give it a whirl for only $17.50 for their first year, and our chapter gets a healthy $15 dollars of that back in the form of a direct rebate.

Financial Support for Land O’ Sky

Chapter Leaders and Program Chairs

any TU members think most of their yearly membership payments go back to the local chapter. 400 members times $35/ year is $14,000. What does our board do with all that loot?

Cliff Albertson, President

In fact, the chapter gets only about $2.00 per member per year from those payments. Combined with new member rebates, we receive around $1,000 or so per year from TU for our operations.

Curt Campbell, Treasurer

For the rest of the funds we need to operate our conservation and education programs, we rely on the continued generosity of our members — particularly when it comes to the recent Fly Fishing Film Tour and our gear tables at the WNC Fly Expo, which are our largest fund raisers. Thank you for supporting your chapter through those events. Keep us in mind as you fish during the summer and fall and decide to get the latest and greatest of something — those gently-loved wading boots with the rubber soles may be just the thing for somebody else, and instead of letting them rot in your basement or garage you can let us turn them into cash for another Trout In The Classroom system or to save a stream near you.

Reba Brinkman, Vice President Patrick Brady, Secretary Jay Hawthorne, Board Member & Conservation Chair Brown Hobson, Board Member & Programs Chair Neal Labrie, Board Member & Fundraising Chair Trent McDevitt, Board Member David Vigue, Board Member John Miko, Past President Rick Miale, Stocking Program Chair Charles Crolley, Communications Chair Andrew Kabel, Trout in the Classroom Coordinator

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A CURRENT AFFA

A Trip Re

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AIR

eport by Charles Crolley

hen you say “going out west” to a group of TU members and fly anglers, it conjures up visions of pristine mountain streams in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho. Places you see in the Orvis catalog, surrounded by breathtaking scenery and home to teeming populations of colorful wild trout. But that’s not what I mean by “going out west”, which for me is twice-yearly trips to either Missouri or Arkansas. Not exactly two names that pop into your mind when you think of trout meccas for some once-in-a-lifetime holy angler pilgrimage, but respectable fisheries in their own rights. More like “going midwest” but the other sounds much cooler. In a few weeks I’ll be loading up the F-150 and taking the 11-hour drive “out west” — this time, to fish the Current River system in south-central Missouri — where I’ll meet up with a couple of my buddies for a few days of lying, drinking, eating, swearing, insults and generally behaving badly. Once in a while, we actually manage to work in some fishing. You may wonder why I don’t fly. By the time you get to the airport, park, go through security, make a connection or two, wait for your luggage, make at least a 3 hour drive from the closest major airport to get to your destination — plus pay $600 for an upgrade so you don’t have to bring your own rope to tie yourself onto a bench on the plane next to some

old guy with no teeth carrying his support “fighting rooster”, you might as well drive. Taking my own vehicle has another big benefit. Because it’s a pickup and my buddies drive swanky Lexus and Land Rover SUVs, my truck gets hauling duty on the river, which is fine by me. They’re retired police officers, and you’d think with all the training they get and the many years of service they’d be better behind the wheel. I’d feel safer flying, with Foster Brooks as my pilot. We’ve had more than one “Jesus Take The Wheel” moment. The downside of being the driver is once I took a wrong turn after getting some bad advice from a real POS GPS — which I bought on a recommendation from my sister because it had programmable celebrity voices including the redoubtable “Mr. T.” When I did as I was told (“Turn Right, Fool!”) I wound on a road that ended abruptly in a cow pasture and had to pull out an old-fashioned map for guidance. This was years ago, but of course they have pictures and I’ve never heard the end of it, and that damn GPS is probably somewhere still “recalculating.” There are things you can count on during this trip. Like the guy who has a 5 a.m. alarm on his phone that he never thinks to cancel. It’s turned up full-blast and makes the klaxon horn sound like your hotel room is on fire. I swear to God he APRIL 2019

does it on purpose. He also has a tendency to not show up or to come late and leave early — the rest of us establish a betting pool. Or the guy who never has what he needs and mooches leaders, tippet, strike indicators and flies from the nearest member of the group. He buys you a discount beer at the bar and thinks you’re all square for a fluorocarbon leader, a hundred feet of fluorocarbon tippet and 3 dozen flies — like you’ve got some magical garden where this stuff just appears at night. Or the guy who sticks to the plan no matter what. The first time we fished together he embedded a barbed hook on an egg pattern in his thumb. He had me horse it out with a pair of forceps so he could keep on fishing. We weren’t aware of the line-under-push-downpop-out thing at the time. That’s a handy piece of information to know. That, and remembering to de-barb your hooks. When we fish the Current River, we stay at Montauk State Park in the lodge or one of their 22

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cabins. The cabins come in a variety of setups so are ideal if you’re traveling with friends or family and don’t mind sharing a bathroom. Split four ways, they work out to about $50 a night each. They have a campground available if you want to take your travel trailer or tent it.

place to ourselves. Between us, we probably caught 100 stockers in 2 hours on a 50-yard stretch of water using everything from size 22 trico spinners to streamers, mops and other junk flies. As I reflect, it probably wasn’t very sporting but it was a heck of a lot of fun.

The primary (only) feature of the park is the Current River, which starts from a series of seven springs that flow into a runoff creek, creating enough flow and producing cold enough water to support a fishery that runs downstream for about 5 miles to the Cedar Grove access.

Mostly we fish outside the park, where the first 5 miles have been designated as a “Blue Ribbon” stream meaning you must fish artificial, single hook flies and lures only and may keep (1) fish over 18”.

Montauk is home to one of four “trout parks” operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation, with its own hatchery to operate a robust put-and-take fishery. During “catch and keep” season, the trout parks can be gruesome affairs — imagine the first day of delayed harvest happening about 230 days a year, and you’ll just about have the picture. You need a special tag ($3) to fish for the day and you can keep 4 fish. That said, the first 1/3 mile or so in the park is fly-only water and is pretty enjoyable although some folks really push the envelope of fly-only. The last 2/3 is anything goes except grenades and seining, and on busy days can be just plain ugly. It’s relatively enjoyable to fish the park if it’s not crowded and you pick your spots, and it’s not unusual to catch 30 or 40 fish without having to beat yourself or the water to death. On a recent trip when an early morning storm kept the “get my 4 and go home” crowd away, two of us opted to try the park and had the

Rainbows aren’t stocked there, but there’s a huge population of hatchery escapees that managed to run the Rapala/Powerbait gamut to the relative safety of this water. The state stocks browns there, usually in the first couple of weeks of May, and some really fine examples can be found throughout the first 3 or so miles.

You access the top part of this water by parking near the shower house in the campground. A 1/4 mile walk on an easy trail (not real picturesque because you walk past the sewage lagoons) will take you to the river outside the park. A cabin with a “Jadwin” sign marks the start of the fishable water. It’s best to cross to the gravel bar by the cabin and fish from the east side of the stream. Moving downriver, you’ll cross back to the west side to fish a small rock structure outside a cabin with a metal roof. We’ve named this hole Walnut because the first time we fished it in fall a wind was blowing walnuts out of the tree and they were landing on the metal roof with a loud bang. The homeowner probably didn’t think that one all the way through.

Move on down river. You’ll make your way to a 90-degree big bend in the river. The locals call it the “bend hole” but we call it Jerk Hole in honor of a couple of cantankerous old coots we ran across. I sat down to rest and tried to strike up a conversation. Apparently, they thought I was trying to poach the spot; they thew a big fit and stormed off. In their haste, they left a pair of nice forceps, nippers and a few other items. I didn’t feel compelled to chase after them because now I WAS busy poaching their hole. I dropped a decent cast next to a big rock, from under which a 17”+ brown took my size 18 hare’s ear. About 200 yards down from that is the Rock Garden — a series of large rock structures in a beautiful bend in the river where lots of trout hold. Make sure you get all the way down to the rock garden, because it’s produced some of our best days of fishing ever. After that, it’s best to take the trail along the north/east side of the river back to the campground, get in your truck and head down to the next access point, Tan Vat. There are stretches of good water about 200 yards above and below and a pool at the access point that holds nice browns on occasion. Another short drive will get you to Baptist Access, named for an old church camp, but now a primary put-in point for float trips and also the head of remote water to fish and gorgeous Ozarks scenery. I’ve caught many, many fine fish for about 2 miles below Baptist Access but in the summer time the aluminum hatch is thick.

Downstream from that is Parker Access, where there’s an equestrian trail crossing. This is about the last place in the river that browns are stocked, and the fish density is noticeably less, although there is a nice run down from the crossing that’s produced several fat browns for me. There are other fine trout waters in the area — the Meramec is one of my favorites and only a 45 minute drive — and many of the rivers including the Current, Meramec, Jack’s Fork, Gasconade and Piney system are fantastic smallmouth fisheries. If you want to learn more, look me up after a chapter meeting sometime. It’ll probably cost you a beer or two, so bring money or a card with plenty of room on it. APRIL 2019

ON THE CALENDAR

April/M S

Mills River DH Stocking We will meet at the North Mills Campground parking lot at 10 a.m. (for donuts!) and the truck usually arrives shortly after that. Be sure to bring your waders and gloves as those buckets with 3-5 lbs of fish can be heavy, and you may need to get in the water. For more information, contact program chair Rick Miale.

June 1

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Hidden Rivers” film premier and panel discussion Join us at New Belgium Brewing at 6:30 p.m. for this event, sponsored by Riverlink — the Asheville premier of the 1-hour documentary “Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia.” The film explores the rivers and streams of the Southern Appalachian region, North America’s most biologically rich waters. Visit https://riverlink.org for more information. TU Southeast Regional Meeting If you’re a volunteer leader for Land O’ Sky or are interested in learning more about TU leadership opportunities, please consider attending this incredible event in Dillard, GA (about a 2 hour drive). Details are available here.

APRIL 2019

Chapter Meeting Jake Rash with the NCWRC fisheries program will be telling us about the many exciting new resources and the trout management efforts currently underway at the state level. Come prepared with your questions, because Jake is a walking encyclopedia on all things fishy. 7:00 p.m. in the REI Community Room at Biltmore Park.

May 2019

SMIE Training at EQI Learn more about the SMIE program in the article in this newsletter. Call 828-357-7411 or email staff@eqilab. org for more info. No experience is needed, but RSVP is required. $15-20 Donation requested for material costs.

Spring Creek DH Stocking We meet in the town of Hot Springs in the ‘downtown’ parking lot behind Spring Creek Tavern at 11 a.m. and the truck usually arrives just before or at that time. For more information, contact program chair Rick Miale.

TU Southeast Regional Meeting If you’re a volunteer leader for Land O’ Sky or are interested in learning more about TU leadership opportunities, please consider attending this incredible event in Dillard, GA (about a 2 hour drive). Details are available here.

APRIL 2019

Land O' Sky Trout Unlimited https://landoskytu.org Land O' Sky Trout Unlimited P.O. Box 117 Asheville, NC 28802