Trout University staff goes to Alaska

Tom and Valerie from troutu.com staff are taking a much needed vacation in Alaska. They are sending back some great photos and a fishing report on the Kenai, and Russian Rivers as well as Deep Creek. Salmon are running and the fishing was spectacular on the kenai.

The local fishermen are allowed to dip net the salmon as they run up the Kenai. They use nets on long poles to scoop the salmon and drag them to shore where they "konk" them over the head. The object is to get enough salmon to fill the freezer for winter. Forget going there for that event as you must be a resident for one year to be allowed to participate. Watch it here:

Exploring the Whitewater River in NC

Last Saturday I went to the western part of North Carolina to the Whitewater River with my son Stephen. We had never fished the Whitewater River so we wated to explore it for ourselves. The Whitewater River originates in NC and flows south into South Carolina and empties into the Jocassee Lake. (By the way, the Jocassee Lake has seen some record brook trout taken.) It is a most remote area and extremely rugged and that makes it very scenic indeed.

However, the small trail leading from State Route 281 is overgrown and covered with fallen trees so it was a difficult trip. Several times I had to crawl on my hands and knees. Due to my failing eyesight I used a spinning rod and a Rooster Tail which I could easily see while Stephen started with a dry fly.

The browns in the upper portion of Whitewater were cooperative. I missed the first two browns after I thought that I had set the hook. But the next brown hit hard and turned out to be a 10 inch brown who was very fiesty indeed. The browns however, were not interested in dry flies so Stephen tried a tandem rig with a nymph on the bottom. Needless to say, we had to leave due to a heavy rainstorm before he had a chance to determine how effective that would be.

After we dried out somewhat, Stephen went to the 400 foot Whitewater Falls, and hiked down to the river. There he had some eager browns but they were a little smaller and from his pictures, they appeared to be about 6 to 9 inches long. The hike back up to the parking lot was extreme to say the least.

Although the trout are plentiful, I do not recommend the Whitewater River unless you are in top physical shape!

Trout Fishing Approved by OSHA

A couple of weeks ago I went trout fishing and it was unseasonably warm in the smokies so I stripped down to my walking shorts and tee shirt; and I promptly fell asleep after enjoying lunch in the most quiet and pleasant surroundings. As I was falling asleep, I could not help but wonder what an average angler would look like if indeed he had to be OSHA approved.

Here are a few examples of what a transition to OSHA approval would look like for the laborious and unsafe task of mowing your lawn. In the first picture (cropped to be decent) you will note a casual perhaps unsafe mower that Iwould have looked like several years ago. The next picture shows what I do to mow today as I have heard of noise abatement, and I have eyesight that I would like to keep no matter how poor it has become. Also I would like to keep a few of my better toes.

The third picture shows what OSHA would prefer me to look like today, complete with a rear view mirror, headlights, heart rate monitor and turn signals just to mention some of the bigger safety devices. Notice the socks for protection from rocks, gumballs etc.

One Big Fly Box

When James Marsh, creator of the Perfect Flies line of flies and fly boxes called upon Trout University to build a fly box to contain an inventory of over 50,000 Perfect Flies and to be able to transport those flies to Townsend Tennessee for the annual TroutFest, it was a tall order to say the least. By the way, James line of Perfect Flies can be purchased right here at Trout University.

After several design iterations the Trout University engineers decided on an adjustable shelving arrangement capable of storing the individual boxes in 4 bays of 7 shelves each creating 28 openings that were 4 inches high by 15 ½ inches wide. The smaller boxes could be four to a shelf and the larger salt water fly boxes could be one to a shelf. The adjustable shelving system makes it possible to convert the height of the shelves to conserve space or to change the configuration as the need arises.

Be sure to check in at the Perfect Fly booth at the 2010 TroutFest in Townsend Tennessee, on May 15 and 16 to meet James as well as myself and to see the World’s largest fly box.

Emma Teacher Fisherman in Sunday School

On the humerous side, Professor Steve at the Trout University has a daughter who is 4 years old who was teaching a Sunday School today in the living room.

There were so many atendees including some first time visitors that folding chairs had to be set up. The bear and the obnoxious moose were in attendance and you may recall them from a previous class "You Can Not Teach Bears in Winter"

Emma joins the class to relax and listen to the choir.

All was going very well until just after the announcements were completed when I happen to look over to the easy chair where the fisherman was sitting. I noticed that he was fast asleep and did not want to be disturbed.

Emma regained her composure and promptly closed the meeting with song.

Andrew (Drew) Makes A Fishing Trip

Drew got all dressed up for some serious trout fishing but he forgot his waders. Perhaps that explains why he looks so unhappy. Drew is the 2 month old son of Stephen Maslar from Trout University. Steve is starting him trout fishing at a very young age.

I understand that their destination is kept secret, but I would guess that it is somewhere in the Smokies. Last night I saw Drew reading Fly Fishing in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park by a Troutu friend Jim Casada. Good luck on your first fishing trip Drew!

Andrew Maslar arrived with a trout fly rod

Andrew Russell Maslar was born at Charlotte Memorial Hospital at 12:46 October 31: a Halloween baby. The Doctors were amazed to have such an exceptional delivery because he was born with a fly fishing rod in his hand. He was 7lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

Congratulations to his parents Steve and Carleen Maslar. By the way, he is not smiling in the picture because we told him it would be at least 3 years before he could cast a fly,

Trout University Website Approaches 1st Anniversary

Wow, the time has gone by so fast. We started the Troutu website in October of 2008 for the purpose of promoting catch and release trout fishing as a family sport. Our mission is to efficiently provide useful, relevant information and products to trout fishermen with all levels of experience; and our moto is "Spend a few minutes on the net, and put more trout in your net".
Our goal is to be the "go to" site for all levels of trout anglers.

Our staff grew by Professor Dan Farnsworth a Minnesota native who brings cold weather experience to the University and by Associate Professor Tom Rosenbauer who is Director of Marketing for Orvis Rod and Reels, and Brant Oswald who is a professional guide and writer as well as Director of Orvis West Coast Fly Fishing School.

For consulting, we are pleased to have Jim Casada who is the author of the award-winning books, "Modern Fly Fishing" and "Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: An Insider’s Guide to a Pursuit of Passion". Jim has over 50 years of trout fishing in the Smoky Mountains National Park and he mixes humor, history and trout fishing into his writings.

We also have the entomology and fly fishing expertise of world famous fly fisherman James Marsh who has over 15 fly fishing DVDs available on our site. We are pleased to announce that we will soon be offering his line of Perfect Flies, flies so realistic, you can not distinguish them from the real alive insect!

During the past year, we have added hundreds of pages as well as several products to the site; and since November 2008, when we received our first visitor, we have been overwhelmed with almost 14,000 visits to the site.

We are not resting on our laurels, however, as we plan to add much, much more this coming year. Of course, we plan to make many improvements as well. Happy Anniversary to us!

Line winder to wind line on reels

I tried to find a good fishing line spool holder on the Internet, but I only found the flimsy suction cup models or the expensive ones like Berkley has to offer. By the way, the suction cup models are flimsy and dangerous. I had a pencil sharpener held up with a suction cup, and it started to fall, I caught it but ended up with a piece of pencil lead in my hand. It is still there after 2 years!

So Steve, being a mechanical engineer who loves to design things, designed a simple but effective line spooler. With its simplistic design, it can be very cost effective. Please take a look at it here.

A crazy Idea: Diving Streamers

My son, the mechanical engineer is forever coming up with new ideas. A friend of his has had great success trout fishing for big browns using diving lures. So Steve had a light bulb go off! He turned his attention to combining the best effects of lures with the best effects of flies, and he invented the Diving Streamer.

Often times especially in swift water, it is difficult to get just the right amount of weight attached to the streamer causing it to get to the desired depth and yet be light enough to cast effectively. With the revolutionary and very light weight lip, the streamer is propelled to the bottom of the stream. This Diving Streamer is being developed with the purpose of trout fishing, however, its application could be very effective in fly fishing for strippers, large mouth bass, smallies, etc.

Please send me your thoughts. Aside from looking like Jimmy Durante, is it worthy of additional testing and development or is it just crazy. jmaslar@bellsouth.net Here's Jimmy!

Fishing and camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Ema decided to go fishing with her gang over the weekend so she packed up her camper, and hooked it up to the car. I think she was inspired by the DVD on The Great Smoky Mountains National Park which just went on sale this week at the Trout University.

Oh, here she is just pulling away from her driveway. Looks like a very good load for that little purple car.

After taking a closer look of the loaded vehicle I think that she may have forgotten to take her fly fishing pole. I hope that it is on the other side of the car where it can not be see.

I would hate to see her car and camper if she packed for a week at the Yellowstone National Park which is a package of 2 DVDs that she purchased at the http://www.troutu.com/ also.

If she learns about all the other professional level instructional DVD's available at the Trout University DVD Listing she will become a devoted fly fishing angler.

Fly Fish Yellowstone National DVD Available

The Trout University staff have partnered with James Marsh world famous fly fisherman and videographer to bring you two new instructional DVD's including Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park and Fly Fishing The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Each instructional DVD package consists of two DVD's with over 2 hours of instructions and information. These are not "watch me catch fish" DVD's but actual teaching and instructing DVD's.

Weather Affects Your Trout Fishing

Yes, clouds and overcast days are definitely better than sunny bright days despite the difficulty in actually seeing the trout.

But, did you know that cloudy and overcast days actually affect the hatches and therefore the trout's eating habits? Learn about this and much more at the Trout University's latest intermediate class "Class 2051 How Weather Affects Trout". This class was inserted in the curriculum at the intermediate skill level since it will be useful very early in a fisherman's learning program.

RIP Mongo Bat

I did a full scale investigation to locate the Mongo Bat tooling. I talked to the old plant manager, salesman, shipping clerk and union steward, all to no avail. It appears that the tooling was the property of Mattel and they have no records that go back that far. It is very unlikely that there would be enough interest is resurrecting the Mongo Bat to warrant the capital required to build new molds. Good bye old friend!

You can not teach bears in the winter

Emma tried to teach the bears Spanish last January, but they kept falling asleep so she is trying right now. But first no hands bike riding. Then Emma began to prepare for the class.

She had a little trouble with the Moose who was asking questions and turned out to be very disruptive. She threw up her hands in disgust! Before you knew it was time for recessonary as Emma puts it and we all went outside to play on the swing.

After swing, the bears were thirsty so Emma invited them into her house for a refressing hot cup of chocolate with honey of course.

Nantahala White Water

So we took the family (10) all up to the Nantahala River for a white water rafting experience. We had been there before and we knew we would have a great ride down the river and perhaps a little fishing as it is one of the premier NC rivers for trout.
Tommy took his fly pole along and also borrowed a spinning rod and pole from me, a double fisted fisherman was he. But, I believe that he choose the rafting over fishing as there was so much commotion on the stream. Here is a good shot of Brian and Tommy in the whitewater.

It got a little worse as you can see from the second picture.

They survived the white water without a scratch and did not fall out this time. On our last trip Marj fell out and nearly drowned.

However, the spinning reel and pole did not survive the trip. It appears that there are a few more pieces of the pole than when we started.

Tip:Trout Fishing with Bugs

Summertime is when the bugs are eating you up. Mosquitoes, ants, etc are on the prowl. Well, it is not all bad news as it is the beginning of terrestrial season for all trout fishermen. Get out your flies or better yet tie your own beetles, black ants, gnat (pictured), inchworms, grasshoppers, or other insects.

These flies are fun to use as they are all top water dry flies. That means that they can produce some spectacular action when the trout hits the surface and takes them in. Also, note that the colorful Brookies, or "specs" as they are often called, are easy prey for the top water flies.

Happy 4th Birthday Emma

Emma said that she was going to say goodbye to three last night because when she woke up this morning she was going to be FOUR! We had a Snow White birthday party Sat and here she is in front of the Dwarf's house.

She has another party tonight for the adults. Since she is already a good trout fishing person, I think that I will give her a cane pole and her very own fly from Trout University.

Trout University Fresh New Look

The Trout University is developing a home page that will be fresh and bold and more descriptive of what we are about: Trout! Please check it out and make any suggestions that are appropriate.

Trout University Profs Bass Fish

Some of the Trout University staff took a short breather from trout fishing and went to Dave Williams pond is South Carolina for a bass fishing expedition. They took a few hours exploring the lake in a small boat. With one paddle it Steve an hour just to circumnavigate the entire pond. Of course there was Marj's truck available so the boat could be moved from storage and between the ponds.
Here is an interesting photo of a bird waiting to be fed just as we wait to be fed from God's word
and some of God's beautiful creation.