Revive - A Quarterly Fly Fishing Journal | Page 151

You reach across time and hold creation in your hand, as peaceful and simple as it ever was. Such naturalism is therapeutic in a world full of artificial gizmos connecting us to every other asshole out there.

The best fishing trips are like that, and East Tennessee is perfectly suited for them. Between the rhododendron and the moonshine, there’s enough untamed wildness in man and land for even the stodgiest son of a bitch to break free from the confines of everyday life. In three days of fishing small creeks in the Tellico River Basin, you create a mountain of memories ranging from beautiful wild trout to hangovers that left us tying flies to our fingers. You remember your best fish and the hours between what pass for hatches. You know you caught decent fish and were even vain enough to take pictures of them. But what matters most was going out with two buddies on one last trip before the central cog moved away.

There’s a tendency to accord respect to the big rivers and the big fish they produce. The big names like Holston or Clinch are obscenely metropolitan affairs compared to an overgrown creek like the Tellico. The very names bring to mind open vistas and clear water you can’t fish without a boat or, at the least, a $500-a-day guide. These rivers take place in all the wrong settings. These artificial monstrosities, built by man looking for cheap power, suit East Tennessee about as well as the Manhattan skyline. You shouldn’t need a drift boat in East Tennessee.

People want to hear about exotic places and expensive lodges. They tend to gloss over when you show them pictures of small streams and the even smaller fish you lust over. The upper branches of these drainages are too small, too strangely familiar for most people. It’s hard to imagine anything special could swim in something scarcely bigger than their bath tub.

Despite its small stature, the bounty of this water far exceeds any basket of fish. It’s the threatening unfamiliarity of this water that yields the greatest rewards. The mixed bag of memories and hazy omissions more than make up for the lack of hero shots to show your secretary.