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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:48 am, the temperature outside is 66.4 degrees.

Today will be hot, with a high temperature in the upper 80’s. There is a 20% to 30% chance for thunderstorms today. The balance of the week will continue to be hot with low chances for rain through the weekend.

Little River is flowing at 209 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.98 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 125 cfs. The water temperature is 66.9 degrees at the low elevation USGS gauge site near Townsend.

If you plan to fish in the Smoky Mountains, today and through the weekend, visit streams in the mid to high elevations where the water is cooler. It will be hot each day. Water temperatures will rise to the 70’s in the low elevations. It is not healthy for the trout you catch and release, when the water is that warm.

You can easily find cooler water higher in the mountains. Look for peak temperatures around 65 degrees or cooler.

The long term weather forecast indicates warmer than normal temperatures through July 24th. It may be cooler next week, and closer to normal. Normal in July is high 86 degrees and low 63 degrees. Lows at night will likely be much warmer than normal.

I would hike into the backcountry today, and fish a small stream. Try Lynn Camp Prong or the East Prong above Elkmont. There you will find many miles of cooler air and water. You will find shade from the sun. You will find beauty beyond belief.

Fishing will be best, early and late, maybe. Maybe not.  

I would drift a black foam beetle to start, and drop a Green Weenie off the dry fly. If you can’t catch trout on that combination, try something else or move to higher ground. You might also try a Yellow Neversink Caddis or a Yellow Stimulator. Of course, other flies may work as as well or better. If you are fishing in streams that have a dense population of brook trout, use the Pink Weenie, which we also call the “Barbie Bug”. Brookies like pink for some reason.

Years ago, Brian Courtney tied Weenies in every color imaginable and tested them all during the Summer months. He finally narrowed the colors to chartreuse and pink. So, those are what we sell. Even if you do not tie flies, you could easily learn to tie Weenies. We start every beginner in our fly tying classes, tying the Green Weenie. All you need is a hook, thread and Small Ultra Chenille. Of course you will need a vise and some standard tools.

We sell every color of Small Ultra Chenille you can think of. Try tying them in every color, but you may be wasting your time. Like Brian, you will probably stick with chartreuse and pink, though red is good too, according to Lefty Kreh. I don’t remember ever using red.

I will be re-ordering materials and hooks for the fly tying department today. I am doing that every week. Orders will go out via e-mail today. Wapsi, our largest supplier, will have their order to us by Friday or Monday. When the items are received and out on the floor, I will order again. Daniel receives the materials and the guys and the shop put them on the wall hooks. We sort of split up the work load.

Stocking and selling fly tying materials is extremely labor intensive. We have thousands of $2.00 items to keep up with. It takes the same amount of time to order and receive a fly rod, as it does to do the same for a pack of dubbing.

Fly tying materials take up a lot of space. When we built our building, 15 years ago, we made it large, to accommodate a large fly tying department. We are considering knocking out some walls and expanding the department in the future, maybe next year.

Only 1/3 of our customers buy tying materials. It has always been that way.

But, it brings customers to our store and makes them happy. When customers are happy, we are happy.

I have always had a passion for tying flies, since 1962. I could turn my chair around right now, and be sitting at my fly tying desk. That is one reason I decided to get more involved with the store and especially that department. Until last month, for the past three years, I have done most of my work from my home office.

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

Byron Begley
July 10, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com