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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:54 am, the temperature outside is 56.0 degrees. It is raining.
Rainfall between a quarter and a half on an inch is predicted today, with a high temperature in the mid-60’s. the rain will continue tonight and tomorrow. We may get another quarter to one half inch of rain tonight. We are also under a wind advisory today and tonight. Winds up to 15 to 30 miles per hour are mentioned in the warning, with gusts to 50 mph in the higher elevations.
Little River is flowing at 256 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.12 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 244 cfs. The water temperature is 53.4 degrees this morning.
Fishing was good this weekend. The weather was perfect.
I don’t know about today. Wind may be the worst problem. I was just outside talking to our neighbors about the cattle at dawn. Will was wearing a headlamp. It is warm, with light rain. The wind is not blowing at all. I would be fishing right now if I could.
The weather radar is only indicating light rain in the area now, but heavier rain could be arriving later. If you are fishing and the wind starts blowing like they say it could, you might consider going home or back to your cabin or motel. You don’t want to be out there when tree limbs are falling.
If you decided to go, try nymphs or dry flies. I think nymphs will work best today, but, you never know.
I would use standard nymphs, Bead Head Pheasant Tail, Tellico, Prince or Hare’s Ear patterns.
Good dry fly patterns include Parachute Adams or Elk Hair Caddis. Some lighter colored mayflies are appearing on the water now. A Light Hendrickson or Light Cahill may work. Yellow Sally Stoneflies have been spotted, but not in significant numbers.
Getting a good drift is more important than fly choices. You can show the trout exactly what they are eating, but if the fly is not drifting with the current, they usually won’t eat it.
Looking ahead, for the next ten days, I don’t see anything but Spring-like weather. There are no nights in the 30’s predicted. Highs will be in the 60’s and 70’s. Lows should be in the 40’s and 50’s. Now this, is what we have been waiting for.
Look at the TVA, Norris Dam generation schedule for today. All I see is one hour of generation today. They are pulsing for an hour later, and that’s it, unless they change their minds. Check yourself before you go.
A mail order customer bought over $600 worth of BoogleBug poppers from us last week. Daniel called the Pierce, the owner of BoogleBug, on his cell phone, yesterday (Sunday). Pierce told Daniel they have plenty in stock. We should be re-stocked by Thursday.
Bass and bluegill fishermen love BoogleBugs. I love them myself. They are extremely durable. They catch fish. You can see our selection by CLICKING HERE.
Another great warmwater topwater fly is Byron’s Knucklehead, the only fly I actually went through the process of designing. I played with the design for a year, did bucket drop tests and fished with them extensively, before we started selling them.
Byron’s Knucklehead was originally designed for smallmouth bass in rivers. I found out quickly, they worked well for largemouth bass and big bluegill. I found they worked well in the lakes.
Then, a guide in another state saw me catch a trout on one. He started ordering them in black, for his trout customers to use on his tailwater. They only work during the Summer months for trout. Then, another trout tailwater guide ordered some. So, I guess it is a trout fly now.
See Byron’s Knucklehead on our online store by CLICKING HERE.
Paula and I love fishing the lakes from our boat. We especially enjoy fishing with poppers and Knuckleheads. Now that the water is warming in the South US, we have already noticed more mail orders for these flies, and customers buying them in the shop.
I am looking forward to fishing on the lakes again.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 23, 2018
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |