Orange Is Always on My Mind and In my heart

(If you don’t like hearing my long-winded sidebar stories, scroll down for the Orange and White game commentary… It’s riveting.)

The annual Orange and White took place today to conclude the most important spring football practice in Knoxville in quite some time, and I was nowhere to be found.

Instead, I stood for 12 hours, tucked happily an hour or so away from Knoxville on a breathtakingly beautiful 8-mile stretch of the Tellico River, doing what I love more than almost anything except watching the Vols — fishing for trout.

(Note: The previous sentence excludes hanging out with my wife. If you’re reading, dear, you know you’re No. 1 on that list …)

I started trout fishing about five years ago, and every time I get the chance to go, I relish it. Normally, those days are spent on the Elk River. But there, you normally just sit in the same spot all day, bottom-fishing the depths and hoping a fish comes lazily along and bumps into your bait. It’s more like “trout catching” than “trout fishing,” but it serves its purpose.

Then there are the trips to Tellico and Wildcat Creek — another stream that runs straight down a mountain on the Georgia-North Carolina line about five miles from Nick Saban’s lake house on Lake Burton (I think that’s the name of the lake …) As beautiful as that stream is, nothing compares to Tellico.

After a brief spell of heavy rain in the morning, we had pretty much the perfect day. The “we” to which I’m referring is myself and a buddy of mine who lives in Chattanooga and is turning 30 on Sunday. The trip was a celebration of sorts, but really, we make any excuse we can to get to Tellico. And those excuses usually run only about twice a year.

The trip is so important to me, I spent $90 on an out-of-state fishing license, and even if I don’t go again this year, it’s worth every penny. The last time we all went, VolstotheWall was there, and between the three of us, we caught 18 and just had a complete blast. That day was one-in-a-million. Saturday, my buddy and I caught four in 12 hours. But the rain caused the water to be higher, faster and murkier from all the sediment, so we considered the haul a success.