Letter From Chapter President

Its finally here and I am ready! Fall is on our doorstep and with all it brings, from cooler temperatures, beautiful Smoky Mountain colors, and even prettier brown and brook trout spawning in our waters. We have been blessed this year with abundant water filling our streams. However we cannot forget our neighbors in the Carolinas who suffered a major hit from Hurricane Florence. Please remember to support them as people helped those in Gatlinburg after the devastating wildfires a couple years back. The best thing to do is continue to visit these coastal areas and support them with your visitor dollars as they go through the rebuild process.

I am excited to say our next chapter meeting on Thursday, October 25th at 6PM is at a new location! It will be held at Dead End BBQ at 3621 Sutherland Ave. in Knoxville, TN in their private meeting room. Dead End BBQ is in the same Bearden neighborhood and only 1 mile from where we have met for years right on Sutherland Ave. The food is great and I can personally say the BBQ brisket rocks, along with other specials and a full bar of beverages and soft drinks. Come and join us for a fun evening at Dead End BBQ!

Get ready for the return on October 27th & 28th, 2018 of Fly Tyers Weekend presented by Little River Outfitters in Townsend TN. This event features over 40 fly tiers that weekend demonstrating every type of imaginable fly inside the big top at Little River Outfitters. We are honored to have been asked again to provide a booth for the Great Smoky Mountain Trout Unlimited chapter. We need your help to staff the booth in 2 hour shifts, please see the article below to sign up. Come out, lend a hand, check out the tiers and pick up some great tips as the they showcase their work with the Great Smoky Mountains in the background.

The"Battle of Gatlinburg 2018" was a great success this year as we had perfect weather, water, and a plentiful supply of fish thanks to the City of Gatlinburg Parks Department. I especially want to thank our competitors, sponsors, and most deservedly GSM TU chapter members Bruce McNiel and Mike Bachman for their volunteer work. 

We are already planning our annual "IRON MAN FLY CONTEST" for January 2019. This event is our fundraiser to send a deserving boy or girl to Trout Camp in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Each year tiers compete in an evening of tying flies with every kind of imaginable material we can dream up. It is a big night for an even bigger cause, do not miss this one!

Also please note our next chapter meeting is on Thursday October 25, 2018. Along with the regular program we will be accepting nominees for chapter officers and board members for 2019. If you are interested in serving as a officer or if you would like to nominate a candidate please send me an email so we can get their name on the list of nominees. Email to: john711111@yahoo.com

Thanks to everyone who attends our meetings and events, it is your chapter and we invite everyone to get involved. Please bring family and friends and remember you never have to be a Trout Unlimited member to come to our activities; just a love of the outdoors and the fellowship of those who feel the same.

Follow us on our Great Smoky Mountain website and the best way to stay current with news and updates is on GSM Facebook: http://m.facebook.com/GreatSmokyMountainTU/

John Reinhardt

President