Cathey and I recently spent an afternoon in the little
community of Flintville Tennessee.It’s an area in Tennessee
with beautiful rolling hills, deep ravines, and small clear streams. All of the
above characteristics in this little community contribute to one of the oldest
fish hatcheries in the state of Tennessee.
Numerous clear springs are located at the bottom of the ravines, which provide
the cold water to keep all the rainbow trout alive in the Flintville Trout
Hatchery. The director told us that the water is harness from nine springs and pumped
through the indoor tanks and outdoor concrete trays. The indoor tanks whole the
smaller trout from ¾” to 3” fingerlings: while 300 yards of concrete trays 6
ft. wide 2 to 3 ft. deep outdoors house the largest trout. The outdoor trout
range from 4” to 12” in size. Once the trout reach the 12” size then they are
transferred to Tim’s Ford tailrace and warm water streams in a 100-mile radius
of the hatchery. There are numerous warm water streams in middle Tennessee
that receive rainbow trout during the months of December, January, February,
and March. During those months the water temp is cold enough to sustain life
for the hundreds of rainbow that are release in the streams. Very few trout survive
after April once the water temps move into the upper 60’s. In fact, most are
caught before the temperature takes a toll on them.
This is my second
trip to a fish hatchery and today’s visit was the better of the two. The
director made the visit very informative and interesting during the hour tour.
I am sure most of you have toured a hatchery before, but for those of you who
haven’t, it is worth the time spent.
Numerous indoor tanks containing the smaller rainbow
Sorry for the reflection--thousands of tiny rainbow, most still have the egg yoke attach to their stomach--these tiny trout will be twelve inches in a year
Quite a find, a smaller tank inside with albino trout
Yards of outdoor concrete trays containing larger trout--a lot of these trays had screens on them
Feeding time, quite a frenzy!!!
This trip really got me pumped for the coming season; this post is part one. In the coming weeks, I will share with you'll part 2 fishing McCutcheon Creek in Spring Hill where some of the trout was stocked today. I live about four miles from the warm water stream.
I enjoy looking at outdoor pictures, especially
those posted by fellow bloggers. Howard at Windknots and Tangled Lines has shared
some great blog images from his recent post. In his response to my comment
about the post, he suggested that everyone should do a post like his image
post. So I’m going to be the first blogger to fulfill his suggestion. I hope the rest of you guys will submit an “image post” in the coming days as well.
Beautiful rainbow was taken from the crystal clear waters of
the Sipsey, I will miss fishing this outstanding tailrace.
Charles and I at our last Troutfest
Kyle was one of my former students, who love to fly fish
Viewing the set of Dances With Wolves out west a couple of summers ago. This western in my opinion was the greatest western ever made; as most of you know I am a HUGE western fan!!
My fishing buddy Ivan; love to watch him make those roll cast under the many overhanging branches on Smith Lake
Our first snow in Spring Hill this year---I've recorded 16 different bird species feeding at my feeders
Blogger David Knapp on the Caney enjoyed my day fishing with David
Monster bull bluegill was taken last year
Vintage cypress boat, built by my older brothers, one who is no longer with us, but still in memory in this boat
How could I forget Jenny's big catfish
What can I say!!
I still remember this spotted bass
B.T. with one of his best bows from the Caney last year
So many memories from this little pond; located a short distance from our house where my family lived. This little pond is where my brother and I learned to fish catching large bluegill using redworms and grasshoppers for bait.
Jason home for a short time, a couple of years ago, he loved to fish Smith
The Crystal Mill located in Carbondale west of Denver
Special Grandchildren!!
The bluegill hunter will soon be on the water
Jason and I fishing the Caney a couple of years ago
My older brother who is in bad health now and will never make any more fishing trips--this image was taken from one of many trips I made with him crappie fishing on his home lake in Winona Miss.
Guys I had a lot of fun sorting through hundreds of images from my hard drive to put this post together, brought back a lot of memories
Just wondering how many of you guys are concerned about good
footwear. When I was young wearing comfortable shoes or tennis shoes wasn’t
that important to me. I was only concerned about the style then, but now I am
looking for comfort as well as style. Anyone who is into hiking, hunting,
running, walking or fishing; I assume would want a pair of shoes that will not
cause leg and foot discomfort during the day. I like athletic shoes that
will absorb the pounding your feet and legs take during a day’s activity. Cathey and I recently
spent a day at Epcot from 9 AM to 9PM walking or standing most of the day. The
memory foam shoe by Skechers helps make that day much more enjoyable, simply because
of the cushion foam that helps eliminate leg and foot cramps during the day. This post probably sounds like an
advertisement, if it does so be it, but this shoe is the real deal. For you
Geezers and the rest of you guys this might be a shoe you need to try on. We
purchased our Skechers at Academy Sports or you can go online and purchase with
free shipping.
I liked my Skechers so well that I went back to Academy and bought another pair for 30.00 bucks quite a bargain. You even get two colors of shoestrings, I stayed with the grey color.
Cathey and I decided to take a little trip last week looking for warmer weather in Florida. We made
numerous stops along the way at antique shops, flea markets, and a fishing-knife
museum on our way to Epcot at Disney World. The fishing-knife museum was a
hidden gem off interstate 10 near Tallahassee.
This place had the largest selection of Case knives in the U.S.
This was our second trip to Disney World our first was visiting
MagicKingdom
when our children were young; that visit 30 years ago was for the children, this
trip this past week was for Mom and Dad.
What can I say about Epcot, which is a museum within itself; the LandPavilion for us was the most interesting, the food production research being
conducted in this Pavilion was amazing. We spent hours in this one place.
I’m sure some of you have made a visit to the Land Pavilion, but for those who
have not it is worth the trip to tour the facilities and the rest of EpcotPark.
Most all these lures were wooden
Huge collection of vintage outboard motors
My grandson would have loved this collection
Old cypress canoe, excellent condition
Vintage Fly Reels
Just a small part of the case collection--leather handle and bone handle case knives
Today’s post consists of a variety of subjects; hope you
guys find some interesting. As most of you know I’ve been blogging for quite a
while, in fact, seven years to be exact. During that time I have interacted with
some wonderful individuals who love fishing as much as I do; a big thank you
for visiting Fishing Through Life and pushing the number of visitors over half a million a couple of weeks ago.
Some weeks ago we got a heavy dusting of snow that really
brought out the birds feeding at the feeders. The grandchildren and Pops
enjoy identifying each species that frequent the feeders.
I’m sure a lot of you guys use screen savors. I have my
computer programmed so it will show a different outdoor scene each time I log
into my laptop. This image of the old Crystal Mill rotated onto my computer the
other day; I thought about Howard and Mel, who I suspect live within driving
distance of the historic site. The mill is located about four hours west of Denver
in the town of Carbondale. Just
wondering if you guys will ever make a trip there, could be worth a great post!
I was visiting the Orvis website the other day and linked
into their fly fishing video segments, which covers everything about fly
fishing. After viewing some of the videos and taking the test at the end of the
videos showed me that I am still in the learning stages. Check out the test on
Dry Fly Fishing and see how much you know about fishing the dry fly. By the way
I did pass my test with a score of 88.
