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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:21 am, the temperature outside is 34.3 degrees.
This is going to be a beautiful day in the Smoky Mountains. It will be sunny with a high in the low 70’s. Rain is predicted tonight and into the early morning. We could get a half of an inch of rain by tomorrow. Saturday afternoon will be sunny and cooler, in the low 60’s. Rain returns Sunday.
Little River is flowing at 502 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.64 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 280 cfs. The water temperature is 48.4 degrees this morning.
All streams in the Smokies have receded and that will continue today. The river levels are falling slowly. Some streams are fishable and you could wade safely in some areas. Other areas where the streams are restricted by the natural landscape will be very swift. Be careful wading.
Water temperatures are on the chilly side. The water will warm later today and fishing will improve as the fish will become more active.
I would plan on standing in safe water and fly fish using nymph rigs. This is a good time to improve your nymphing techniques. By not using a strike indicator, and using a heavily weighted anchor fly, with another nymph or wet fly attached to a tag above the heavier nymph, is a good combination. This will allow you to vary the depth of the nymph rigs.
Without a strike indicator, you have to watch your leader and strike when anything appears different. Keep your leader tight and try to keep your rod tip directly above the nymphs. It really helps to tie in a “sighter”, which is a piece of brightly colored leader material. The sighter acts as a strike indicator, that is not floating on the surface, hampering your ability to alter the depth of your flies when needed.
What I am trying to describe can also referred to a Euro nymphing or “high sticking”.
This method has become more popular, though the practice has been around for decades. I learned to fish this way in the early 80’s and it works. Many anglers are tying their anchor flies on jig hooks, designed specifically for trout fly fishing competition. These nymphs are heavy, tied using tungsten slotted beads.
We have noticed a significant surge in sales of competition jig hooks and tungsten slotted beads.
The lowland rivers are still flowing fairly high. Safe wading will be limited in many of these rivers.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers are generating around the clock at all the dams I checked this morning. They are also sluicing at some dams. I checked the lake levels at some and found the water levels are still rising in the impoundments. They need to reverse that trend right now, to create more storage capacity for future heavy rainfall events.
What we need is less rain! We have had double the normal rainfall this year in our area since January 1st. That happened last year and the year before. We did have a short dry spell last Fall that caused a drought in the Southeast and other areas. We still ended up with a record rainfall year in the Tennessee Valley, despite the drought.
People are fly fishing, or at least preparing to go. Despite everything that is going on, we are fairly busy at the shop. We are selling a lot of terminal tackle, flies leaders, tippet, strike indicators and small items used while on the stream. I’ve seen a lot of mail orders with other necessary equipment, packs, fly boxes and about anything you can think of you would need to catch fish.
Fly tying is very popular right now. We are selling a lot of materials and tools. More people are at home. Fly tying keeps us connected to our pastime and sport.
More fly anglers do not tie flies, than those who do. It’s been that way during the past 25 years since we have been in business. The last time I checked, only 33% of our customers buy fly tying materials. That is consistent with numbers going back many years. I have not checked lately. I bet the numbers are different. I think more people are taking up the hobby of tying flies. They are probably learning on the internet.
Lily Renzetti told me their business last year was huge. She and her husband Andy own Renzetti Manufacturing in Florida. They make the most popular fly tying vise in the world and other fly tying tools. We had our best Renzetti year last year as far as I can remember. It looks like we are going to have another one this year. More people have to be tying flies. There is really no other explanation. Overall, our fly tying department has grown significantly during the past two years.
There is something to be said about catching a fish on a fly you tied yourself. The feeling is hard to explain unless you tie flies. Those who do, will agree.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 17, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
