MARCH 26 MEETING NOTES: Great meeting with several visitors - Tommy, Bill, Fred and Todd (hope to see you guys again soon).
For those of you on Spring Break you missed an excellent presentation by Jim Pipus with TWRA on the Elk River. His pictures and statistics were outstanding. Several of us are now trying to attach toasters to 12v batteries to shock up a few fish ourselves. The good news from Jim is that the changes in the flow on the Elk are hopefully going to improve this fishery long-term and the results from their shocking survey of early this year are encouraging. Even with the flow issues of last summer the fish count for 2009 was similar to the count of 2008.
Now, about size. Rainbows are going to run for the most part stocked in the 10" range, with some growing to 12-14's and just a few over 15-16. Browns - well....bigger (I'm not going to tell you how much bigger but NICE). Jim indicated the fish are found in the "usual" places from the dam to Ferris Creek. All-in-all a very informative meeting.
Fishing reports were give by Jeff Yarbrough about his recent fishing expedition to dangerous, treacherous Gatlinburg. As I mentioned in one of my emails from March Jeff has now become the only member of Calvary Outfitters to actually have Groupies and be applauded for his fishing expertise..AND he caught some VERY nice fish. Blake Morgan also gave a report on his trip with Captain Perry to the Elk the week before our meeting. Blake is the ultimate sportsman in that he chooses to not boat fish but can get some BIG fish to follow his fly...Captain Perry managed to boat a large Brown. Neither fisherman reported hearing applause.
And finally, Captain Perry has kindly donated four new fly-tying kits to the group so in future meetings we'll be able to have more vises. We'll be using these in the coming months as we investigate warmwater fishing and midge fishing for trout.
In closing let me leave you with this thought from 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (New International Version) " 11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
For those of you on Spring Break you missed an excellent presentation by Jim Pipus with TWRA on the Elk River. His pictures and statistics were outstanding. Several of us are now trying to attach toasters to 12v batteries to shock up a few fish ourselves. The good news from Jim is that the changes in the flow on the Elk are hopefully going to improve this fishery long-term and the results from their shocking survey of early this year are encouraging. Even with the flow issues of last summer the fish count for 2009 was similar to the count of 2008.
Now, about size. Rainbows are going to run for the most part stocked in the 10" range, with some growing to 12-14's and just a few over 15-16. Browns - well....bigger (I'm not going to tell you how much bigger but NICE). Jim indicated the fish are found in the "usual" places from the dam to Ferris Creek. All-in-all a very informative meeting.
Fishing reports were give by Jeff Yarbrough about his recent fishing expedition to dangerous, treacherous Gatlinburg. As I mentioned in one of my emails from March Jeff has now become the only member of Calvary Outfitters to actually have Groupies and be applauded for his fishing expertise..AND he caught some VERY nice fish. Blake Morgan also gave a report on his trip with Captain Perry to the Elk the week before our meeting. Blake is the ultimate sportsman in that he chooses to not boat fish but can get some BIG fish to follow his fly...Captain Perry managed to boat a large Brown. Neither fisherman reported hearing applause.
And finally, Captain Perry has kindly donated four new fly-tying kits to the group so in future meetings we'll be able to have more vises. We'll be using these in the coming months as we investigate warmwater fishing and midge fishing for trout.
In closing let me leave you with this thought from 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (New International Version) " 11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
