President of Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Rufus King, along with GSMNP head fisheries biologist Steve Moore discuss Troutfest with WBIR (Knoxville, TN). Check it out!

Troutfest 2011 is just around the corner. Next weekend, May 13th-15th to be exact. T-Fest will be held at the Townsend Visitors Center in Townsend, TN. The banquet is on Friday evening and the expo is Saturday and Sunday. If you've attended in the past, you know how exciting Troutfest is. Fly fishing, fly tying, great people, great food, and after the expo, great fishing. In no particular order. This year, T-Fest is going to be even bigger. Last year was incredible. This year is expected to be even better, if you can believe it. 2 new additions to the celebrity anglers include Tom Rosenbauer, who is currently the marketing director at Orvis, an author of many popular fly fishing books, and the host of the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast (just to name a few of his accomplishments). Second in the celebrity lineup is Zach Matthews. Zach hosts the very popular Itinerant Angler podcast and is the Southeast Field Editor for Fly Fisherman magazine. Of course the legends Lefty, Bob, and Joe will also be there.

Troutfest isn't your ordinary expo. Proceeds raised go to Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fisheries Department, Friends of the Smokies Fisheries Scholarship Fund or other youth educational conservation projects. Of course a small portion will be saved for Troutfest 2012.

If you are driving to Townsend from a considerable distance away and you're planning to stay overnight, book your campsite/hotel room quickly, as time is waning! I'd imagine hotels in Townsend are pretty full. Campgrounds are likely no different. If there are no vacancies, try Maryville/Alcoa, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, or even Knoxville if you don't mind the drive.

I'm scheduled to demonstrate as a fly tyer on Saturday from 1 until 5. I'll be tying Extended Body Inchworms, Vinyl Rib Stones, and if time allows, some semi-realistic patterns. Requests for a certain pattern are welcomed as well.

For more info on Troutfest, visit Troutfest.org. To view the official Troutfest 2011 schedule, click here.

Hope to see you there!

Forgot to debarb your hook? Have one in your skin embedded past the barb? Billy Chapman Jr. of Angler's Inn International actually demonstrates an easy way to remove it. You heard right. He literally stabs a treble hook into his arm and yanks it out without a problem. Nothing gory or stomach-turning about it, although, if you can't stand watching someone intentionally sticking a hook into their arm and yanking it out, you might want to pass.

This technique is easy and according to Billy, painless when the hook is pulled out. Now, don't go stabbing 2/0 treble hooks into your arm to test it out ya hear?!

1) Despite the line of severe thunderstorms that rolled across the state dropping very heavy rain, water levels are looking great. The storms are done for a while, so rivers will continue to be in good shape. Temperatures are the big story now, as the cold front that triggered these storms last night, passed over WNC around 8-11pm. The cold air immediately started to seep into the region and we felt the effects today with highs in the 60s. Still, tomorrow morning will be the big slap in the face with temperatures in the mid to lower 30s across the mountains and upper 30s in the Piedmont. Frost warnings and advisories have been issued for the mountains, as a result of the cold temps tonight. Hard freeze warnings have been hoisted in extreme eastern TN right on the border of NC. This will more than likely be the last time we see temps near or below freezing, as weather more in line with late spring boots this cold out by the weekend. Upper 80's, with temps approaching 90 possible in the Piedmont next week. Looks like the temps climb incrementally until we hit hot and muggy conditions. The players teeing off at the Wells Fargo Championship here in Charlotte are in for a great weekend. Up in the mountains, I've got a feeling next week is going to give way to some spectacular fishing. Actually, this weekend doesn't look half bad. Either way, get ready!

2) The weekend should yield some decent fishing. By next week, the fishing will be at its best, if the storms and heavy rain hold off. After this short cold snap, wet wading will become popular. In fact, there's plenty of folks that have been ditching the waders lately. I don't know if I would wet wade over the next few days, but by next week the water should be much more tolerable.
3) I've heard reports of some Green Drakes hatching. Although sporadic, they are fluttering around. May is the month you see them around here. Pretty tough to confuse them with other insects hatching right now, so if you see some starting to hatch, switch to a Green Drake Nymph or wet, cast it to your target, and slowly twitch it up to the surface, imitating an emerging Green Drake. It's also possible you see some Light Cahills. Especially during the warm stretch next week. Hendricksons, Sulphurs, and March Browns will also be hatching. Terrestrials are starting to become more and more prevalent as well in the mountains. Try an inchworm, black ant, or beetle. Still a little too early for hoppers though.
4) Enjoy the last month of DH! Once the first Saturday of June rolls around, it's wild streams and catch and release waters.
5) Here's an article I ran across on Twitter. Have you ever wondered where the trout go when the water is high and muddy? The answers lie in this great read: http://bit.ly/k5jX90

1. After a decade of playing hide and go seek, we've finally taken care of the scumbag we knew (good to now say "know" in its past tense form) as bin Laden. I'll never forget where I was during 9/11 and I'll never forget where I was on May 1st.
2. Oddly enough, I had the privilege to talk with a former Special Ops soldier from Task Force 121, 2 weeks ago. "Joe" (his alias, as he couldn't give out his name) was on the team that caught Saddam Hussein. He continuously emphasized that bin Laden WILL be found. 2 weeks later, he was. That coincidence will haunt me for the rest of my life.

3. I can't begin to describe how thankful I am for the brave men and women who have and currently are, fighting overseas to protect our freedom, our nation, and who we are. Without them, we would not be America.

4. Man, am I proud to be an American.

The longest article I've written to date of me rambling on and on is now ready to go. NC's Best Trout Streams is the title. I hope you know how to speak gibberish! All joking aside, hope you find it useful. I honestly had a lot of fun writing it believe it or not. It is in PDF format, as putting the entire article on the blog would result in your computer either a) exploding or b) bursting into flames.

In order to read it, you'll have to download the PDF file. On some computers, you download the file and it automatically pops up in Adobe Reader. You may have to save it to your desktop (or destination of your choice) and then open it up. If you don't have Adobe Reader, you can easily download and install it here.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, whether it be about the article or downloading the article, shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I'll do my best to resolve any issues you may come across.