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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:57 am, the temperature outside is 38.7 degrees.

It is overcast this morning, almost dark. I saw 12 vehicles on my commute this morning. That was more than yesterday.

A warm front is moving in, along with rain. It is possible we could get over an inch of rain through tomorrow morning. More rain is expected Saturday. The high temperature today will be in the upper 40’s, warming to the 60’s tomorrow and to near 70 degrees Sunday. Sunday should be nice, with a low chance for rain.

Little River is flowing at 408 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.50 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 382 cfs. The water temperature is 43.7 degrees this morning.

Right now, Little River is flowing on the high side of good.

Most streams in the Smokies are flowing above median flow, and the water temperatures are on the cool side.

If we make it through the weekend, without heavy rain, fishing is going to be good, maybe very good. Early next week looks even better.

Jack had an excellent day yesterday on Little River. He found hatches of Quill Gordons and March Browns. Trout were rising to them. He watched the trout feeding and picked out the big browns to fish for. He hooked and landed a 24” brown on a Quill Gordon dry fly. He hooked another one, that was larger, and lost it. He told me it would have been his largest brown caught on a dry fly, had he landed it.

Needless to say, Jack was excited. He even took a picture of the one he landed, using his phone. He usually doesn’t do that.

We know warm water temperatures are coming. We don’t know how much rain we will see over the next two days. Weather websites never agree.

If you go fishing in the Smokies today, have some Quill Gordons and March Browns in your fly box. Quill Gordon wet flies are a good choice too. And, Blue Wing Olives or Blue Quills might be needed. If you don’t see surface activity, you may want to switch to nymphs.

I am going to be off tomorrow through Tuesday, and I plan to fly fish for trout most days, weather permitting. Daniel will be writing the fishing report.

I talked to Phil, the sales manager at Whiting Farms yesterday. We talk about every two weeks. After our discussion, I placed an order. He had many of the capes, saddles and 100 packs I wanted, which is rare. But, by the time my order is picked, much of it may be gone. We never know what to expect until the orders arrive.

Good dry fly hackle from Whiting has been hard to get. They can’t grow enough roosters. Whiting increased their production capacity by several barns last year. They hope to be normal in a few months to a year. We have been able to buy hackle from Metz and Keough.

So far this year, our fly tying department has out-performed every other department in the store. We plan to expand it this Summer, from 700 square feet to a little over 1,000 square feet.

I hope all of you have a good weekend and I hope fishing improves.

It is 7:38 am and the rain just started.

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

Byron Begley
March 8, 2019

Fly Tying Classes January, February and March 2019 Taught by Walter Babb and Brian Courtney Beginner to Advanced CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

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