FOOTNOTES

Newsletter of the Georgia Foothills Chapter of Trout Unlimited
Volume 5, No. 11
April 1997

APRIL CHAPTER MEETING

Tuesday, April 1st at the Cornelia Public Library at 7:00 pm.

Another Hoot on the Hooch is in the Books

About 80 folks were in attendance at the Hoot on the Hooch on March 15. If you missed it, you missed a great time! The big raffle of a Thomas & Thomas / Ross outfit was won by Monte Seehorn.

A lot of people took advantage of the membership renewal special mentioned in the last FOOTNOTES. If you didn't get a chance to renew under the special, it may not be too late...contact Dave Burton.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the Hoot a success once again, and especially to Dave Burton for emceeing the event. That's probably the least desirable job associated with the Hooch, but Dave always does a great job keeping the show moving and making things look a lot more organized than they really are!

APRIL MEETING PROGRAM

Jimmy Harris attended the salt water fishing show in Gwinnett County last weekend and picked up a lot of tips from the likes of Flip Pallot, Stu Apte, Chico Fernandez, and Lefty Kreh. Jimmy was most impressed by Lefty, and we'll be showing a Lefty Kreh video at the next meeting. According to Jimmy, the techniques Lefty shows are simple, but quite effective...and don't just apply to long-distance casting, but to lots of small-stream situations as well.

Also, for the curious, we'll hopefully have the final tally from the Hoot on the Hooch. If you have any suggestions for improvement, you may want to bring these up at the meeting.

TROUT SEASON OPENS!

Fishing Reports Wanted

Since the season is just now opening, a lot of folks will be breaking out of the winter doldrums and be getting into some serious trout fishing...so, how about writing up the gory details to share with your fellow FOOTNOTES readers?

I'll kick it off by reporting on a trip to the Nantahala Delayed Harvest section on March 22 and 23. Jay Reed, Tom Hiers, and Lee Hiers ran up there both days and got a little time in on the water. And there was plenty of water! The creek was a bit high, and the fishing was a little slow, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Jay caught a 16" brook trout on Saturday and Lee got a 17.5" brookie on Sunday, but the numbers of caught fish were down. According to the NCWRC survey-taker, the state recently stocked a good number of big brook trout, so that explains our catch.

While the water is high, be on the lookout for kayak hatches...as the water drops, these pests should subside (my apologies to any kayaking readers!).

NATIONAL FISHING WEEK

JUNE 2-8, 1997

The 1997 National Fishing Week will take place June 2-8. This year's theme is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Hooked on Fishing-Not On Drugs, an educational program that combines drug education, sport fishing and conservation. The program uses fishing to enhance the development of life skills that divert children from using drugs.

Many states, including Georgia, offer free fishing days during this week (in Georgia, it's June 7 and 8). While that won't affect most of us, it might be a good time to take a non-fishing friend out for a day on the stream. Who knows, we might just get another TU member out of the deal!

UPCOMING EVENTS

At Unicoi's Trout fishing Day, I had a chance to talk with Doug Watson about some upcoming projects that may be of interest:

April 26 - South Fork Mocassin Creek - structure maintenance - Rabun Chapter project

May 10 - Kids Fishing Rodeo at Nancytown Lake

June 7 - Kids Fishing Rodeo at Tallulah River

June 21 - Chastain Branch (tributary of Raper Creek) - stream bank restoration - Foothills Chapter project

September 27 - Lower Reed Creek - structure maintenance - Rabun Chapter project

Any and all help will be appreciated!

YOU NEVER KNOW!

by Steve Furrer

While returning from a flyfishing trip in the Smoky Mountains, I was plagued by having my '91 Honda Accord just stop on me about 90 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi. After having the car towed to a "local" repair shop, we found that the rotor inside the distributor had melted and popped off the shaft of the distributor, melting the cap as well. Knowing Hondas very well, I knew the "local" NAPA auto parts store would not have the replacement parts. Rather than spend the night in a fleabag motel adjacent to the 35/55 truck stop in Vaiden, Mississippi, I called on a friend in Jackson to purchase a tow strap and come tow me and my car to the closest Honda dealership in Jackson. When he arrived at 9:00 PM, he was bearing three dock ropes (used for securing boats) and he made mention that he hoped I had been a Boy Scout as he had no idea as to how to tie these ropes together to tow the car the 90 miles back to Jackson. Not coming close to remembering any of the knots from my Boy Scout days, the only knot that I thought could handle the job (Mind you: the ropes had a tensile strength of 5300 lbs) was the blood knot we use in flyfishing. He had never seen such an animal but was willing to give it a go. Making the loose ends long enough, I added a square knot tied across the middle of the knot (just for reinforcement). I am happy to say that the knot held the entire 90 miles and the problem with the car was a recall that didn't cost me a dime. So, you never know when the information we carry around in our heads about flyfishing will come in handy. And they think we are nuts...