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3. trout fishing in tennessee , Page 2

Damn Tony! Just when my New Years resolution was to "play better with TroutNutter's" and to "be less verbose"! :) Well I made it 6 days...;)

To start with, when have you known Spence to be above a little hyperbole to over stress a point? I could of placed a little smilely face behind it but that wouldn't of been sincere...The treble-hook was a very small part of it...Sort of the straw that broke the camels back.

I don't want to bore the un-interested, but...You will have to take my word for it Tony, that there are very few in my state who have had a better position to view all the things that the grassroot members and local chapters of TU have done for my state. My gripe has been with the national and state boards and never with the membership or mission of TU.

You know that I fish the Au Sable and have had a relationship with that river since I was 17. Everyone should know that it was there in 1959 that TU was founded at George Griffith's cabin known as the Barbless Hook. During the first ever week of my fishing the Au Sable my mentor and I fished the stretch that runs by the cabin...There is a small rock on the dock there commemerating the occassion.

We eventually fished that stretch so much we came to call it The Wade and I used to joke that I could fish it with a blindfold on. I can't tell you how many mornings before sun-up and way after dark, and everywhere in between I fished by George's place...I own a personally autographed copy of his 1993 book, "For The Love of Trout". :)

My first ever wade on the Au Sable was from Gates' Au Sable Lodge to an access known as the Pine Rd stairs. These stairs were built by the Challenge Chapter of TU to stop the undermining of the slopes there from the parking lot to the river. These are very long stairs and I have used them when I ran years ago...A great work-out.

My mentor was very, very helpful to me. He built rods for me, taught me to tie, and helped me pass flyfishing 101. All he asked in return was that I join the Angler's of the Au Sable which I did along with TU...I belonged, decades ago, to the Challenge Chapter and the Ann Arbor one as well. I joined the Challenge Chapter because they only exist to raise dough for stream improvement and put their money where their mouth is, so-to-speak.

I have tied with a group of guys from the Challenge Chapter for 20 years only interrupted by my disk problems when my back became so screwed up I could no longer lean over the tying bench. This past December I drove to a fly tying expo in Lansing with the president of that chapter and fished last May with their director-at-large.

The last two springs I was personally invited, and attended, the Mason-Griffith Chapter's annual banquet in Grayling by their president who also happens to be on the board of the Angler's as well...He is a retired fire chief from down this way who has retired to Grayling and lives on the Manistee...He also played adult hockey and he and his wife (I call her "Hockey Mom") raised their boys playing hockey when they were little. You know they are all right in my book! :)

The Mason-Griffith Chapter is also known as The Founder's Chapter...I've seen it screwed up in different places, but G Mason died in 1954 and was not at the 1959 meeting that formed TU, but George Griffith said it was Mason who first put the idea in to his brain. Mason was a member of Duck's Unlimited and suggested that angler's needed something similar.

Anyway! Enough of that.

I was laughing as I drove to the bank this morning that two guys, one a "Lifer" of TU and another a "Lifer" of FFF arguing is like two guys arguing over which church each attends on Sunday morning. Our hearts are in the right place, no?! :)

Sorry I ruffled your hackles mister...My long involved relationship with TU and our eventual divorce will have to be for another day...Maybe along a stream some day. It is way more complicated than the Mepps Spinner...It is no coincidence that the largest part of my fishing takes place in the no-kill stretches on the Au Sable and the no-kill stretches on the Huron, for small-mouth, west of Ann Arbor. This speaks to your second quotation box above and the "hardware boys"...



I think Lastchance was saying that here in America we are free to say and believe what we believe...Lame or not...As a non-believer, born in Newport Rhode Island, I'll be whisling "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or some such...:)

Spence

I guess it was like married lovers who find they can no longer live together...I'm just happy there were no children...;)

I lead with my heart and vote with my feet...:)

I don't know just how many of my angling friends belong to TU. I would imagine most of them...Those evangelical among them still try, from time-to-time, to tempt me back in to the fold.

Gee, I love spinners -both kinds.

Sorry to inform you that your dog just won't hunt.
I am a life member of both of those churches... Also DU and SCI.
As I said, I don't always agree with the politics (and corruption) of these organizations, but they still get my monetary support.



I guess I just lead with my wallet and wade through all of the bullshit to cast my vote
;)