SOUTH HOLSTON SPAWNING REPORT
 By Jack West
 12/27/00
 
This has been a strange year to say the least. Water temperatures plunged into the 40's far earlier than usual.
Mike Adams noticed pre-spawn behaviour early. Bob Cheers reported seeing two huge browns on a redd in mid-November. My numerous scouting trips through December 19 yielded very few sightings of spawning activity compared to past years. I saw a few fish suspended in spawning areas but no sightings of trout building redds.

But somehow the redds appeared!

On December 9th Ed Williams, Raymond and I scouted River's Way and Webb Bridge. The was some, but not much, activity by fish at River's way and one 7-pounder suspended just below Webb bridge.
On December 19 Bill Beazell, James Chandler and I got together to check out the spawning activity. Because of an unannounced early water release we had little time but did see five browns and six redds.  Two browns were in the four to five pound range.
On Wednesday December 24 Ed Williams and Gary Ollis scouted River's way. Ed said he saw at least two hundred browns in full spawning mode. He said he simply couldn't count all the browns in the five pound range.

So our concerns appear to have been for naught.

Professor Phil Bettoli (Tn. Tech's tailwater research head) and Frank Fiss(TWRA Trout and Stream Co-ordinator) both consider 50 degrees (10 C) to be the temperature which the browns prefer for spawning. This year the temperature fluctuated between 42 to 58 degrees for the better part of two months.  This might explain the "on and off"  spawning behaviour.
All indications are that we still have a wonderful base of twenty to twenty five inch brown trout in our South Holston tailwater.
 

Wetlands expert to speak At January Meeting
 

ETSU Professor Dr. Paul Wetzel will be the featured speaker at the Overmountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets Thursday, Jan. 11, at the House of Ribs, 3100 North Roan St. in Johnson City. Social hour begins at 6:15; the program follows a brief business meeting at 7 p.m.
Wetzel's topic is "Restoration of the Florida Everglades: Economics and ecology in the cauldron of politics." He is currently working on restoration of a large wetland in Shady Valley, once a cranberry bog, until it was drained in the 1940s and used for pasture.
Wetzel, whose background is in wetland ecology and restoration,  has worked extensively in the Florida Everglades studying and restoring tree islands in wetlands. He also edited a book on the subject.
Don't miss this meeting--and bring a friend!

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Fishing Reports

If you want to share information on fishing experiences, please get the information to the Newscaster as soon as possible.

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 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Tentative:
May 19--Carter County Clean Streams-Watauga River Clean-up
July 21--Beaver Dam Clean-up and Picnic
September 15--Todd Burleson Memorial Clean-up and Picnic

Fixed:
August 11--South Holston Lake & River Clean-up
 

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WEB SITE ADDRESS

For to keep up-to-date on Overmountain Chapter activities and events, check out our web site at:
www.xtn/~chasekr/

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LEADERSHIP TEAM

Here are telephone numbers for members of the Chapter Leadership Team if you need to contact them:
 Charles Martin      245-4960
 Tom Hensley          735-7062
 Bob Sherrill     540-623-0863
 

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NEW MEMBERS

We have the following new members this month.

GREEN, Hugh no E-mail address
HALE, Andy no E-mail address
HAMLOW, Craig no E-mail address
HASH, Thomas no E-mail address
HILLS, Patrick no E-mail address
JOHNSON, Charles no E-mail address
MESSER, Rocky no E-mail address
MURPHY, Robert no E-mail address
NELSON, Larry no E-mail address
SILVA, T STILVA@POSTMARK.NET
SMITH, Wayne no E-mail address
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No live fly-tying demo for January, but a demonstration video will be shown beginning at 6:15 p.m.