Simple line of java code is catching a UnsupportedEncodingException and I can't figure out why

I am completely stuck on this one. I know my code is correct. It is very simple. I have tried comparing what to null, using .equals, and now .length(), but it keeps catching this exception. Does anyone know what is going on?

public static void findLocations(String what, String near, String near2, String type) {
    StringBuilder responseBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    try {
        URL url;
        String tempURL = "http://.........";

        if (what.length() != 0) { // This line is catching UnsupportedEncodingException
            tempURL += "&category=" + URLEncoder.encode(what, "UTF-8");
        }

        if (near.length() != 0) {


Thread [<1> main] (Suspended)   
LocationSet.findLocations(String, String, String, String) line: 85  
SearchAlgorithm.editNear() line: 322    
SearchAlgorithm.search(String, String) line: 90 
SearchView.onClick(View) line: 281  
Button(View).performClick() line: 2408  
View$PerformClick.run() line: 8816  
ViewRoot(Handler).handleCallback(Message) line: 587 
ViewRoot(Handler).dispatchMessage(Message) line: 92 
Looper.loop() line: 123 
ActivityThread.main(String[]) line: 4627    
Method.invokeNative(Object, Object[], Class, Class[], Class, int, boolean) line: not available [native method]  
Method.invoke(Object, Object...) line: 521  
ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run() line: 868  
ZygoteInit.main(String[]) line: 626 
NativeStart.main(String[]) line:开发者_C百科 not available [native method]  

http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/net/URLEncoder.html#encode%28java.lang.String,%20java.lang.String%29

public static String encode(String s, String enc) throws UnsupportedEncodingException

The methode "URLENCODER.encode(what, "UTF-8") is the line, where you get the exception.