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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:57 am, the temperature is 34.9 degrees.

Warmer air is moving into the Smoky Mountains. It will be partly sunny today with a high temperature in the middle 50’s, dropping to the high 30’s tonight. There is a chance for showers this morning. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer, with a high in the low 60’s falling to the middle 40’s Wednesday night when the rain will begin. Rain will continue at least through Thursday night.

Little River is flowing at 377 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.41 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 287 cfs. The water temperature is 41.0 degrees this morning.

Other streams in the Smokies are flowing near normal. Water temperatures are chilly this morning. If you decide to fish, go later in the day when the water is warming. Fishing will improve over the next couple of days and possibly beyond. I would not expect fishing to be good, but possibly fair.

Weighted nymph rigs are your best option.

Fishing for smallmouth bass and other lowland river species is slow. You may do fair, fishing where trout are stocked in these rivers. Nymphs, egg patterns or streamers are good fly choices.

TVA and the Corps will be generating all day at most dams in the area. Check the TVA website from the links below. You may find angler friendly flows on a couple of tailwaters, especially if you are boating.

While most anglers are not fly fishing much right now, fly tying participation is very high. While most fly shops, including ours, were not offering fly tying classes last year and this year, there are still many customers I talk to, who are beginners. They are probably learning online, by watching videos.

We have seen a surge in our fly tying department business during the past three years. We reacted to this trend by enlarging our fly tying department last October and bringing on more staff with fly tying experience. We have grown our selection of materials, hooks, beads and tools.

Our fly tying suppliers have experienced huge growth during the past 12 months, due to the fact that more people are staying home. They wonder if this is temporary. Nobody knows for sure. I talk to the sales managers and owners of these companies often. Those companies are making buying decisions months in advance. We are changing our purchasing decisions weekly.

I am betting fly tying popularity will continue to grow. We made the decision to expand that part of our business over three years ago. We saw the positive results back then and built on it. Small businesses, or all businesses, control their own destiny. It does require vision, determination and planning. Customers let these businesses know how well they are doing.

Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.

Byron Begley
February 9, 2021  

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com