A quick 16 hours of travel, and I arrived back at Trout Underground World Headquarters late Tuesday night. When you live in a remote area, going anywhere usually involves at least a long travel day - travel being the thing where you drive a long ways, hang out with thousands of quietly desperate people at the airport, sit for hours in a sealed, buzzing tube that's propelled by a long, drawn-out explosion, and then wait 40 minutes for your damaged luggage to fall off the conveyor at your feet.

Sure, it sounds glamorous and all, but if it wasn't for the dry fly fishing at the other end, the whole concept of the Tennessee trip would be in peril. Still, fishing dries in early May – when the Upper Sac is typically running high – is a happy thing.

And the ugly reality is that the Upper Sac is running very high; the river's oscillating around 4,000 cfs, and I think almost all of that is coming over Box Canyon Dam. Temperatures are reaching the mid-80s in Dunsmuir, and there's still snow on the north-facing slopes on the ridges above Dunsmuir. Look for the high water to continue. I'm looking hard at some of the local lakes.

Tennessee Reprise

This year's trip to Tennessee failed to live up to last year's in terms of sheer numbers – and getting progressively sicker the first three days didn't help a lot – but after a couple rest days, a slaw dog (known worldwide for its healing powers), and a few trips to less populated parts of the park, life was good again.

Last year's trip was punctuated by great hatches (caddis on the Holsten and Sulphurs on the Little River) while this year's trip was all about induced dry fly fishing on some quieter, more remote bits of water. I don't think I could easily pick one over the other. After all, you're fishing for pretty fish in a beautiful setting with bamboo fly rods and dry flies, and that's a reality you condemn at considerable risk to your own sanity.

I'm going to write up a summary of the Tennessee trip for those interested in giving it a try – including my observations about the Tennessee Slaw Dog, and how we can make our own cholesterol-laden Weapons of Mass Obstruction right here in California. It's not enough that we provide valuable fishing information. At the Trout Underground, we're concerned for your gustatory well being too. See you in the chili aisle, TC.