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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:57 am, the temperature outside is 68.2 degrees.

Scattered thunderstorms moved through the foothills yesterday morning and last night. We got a total of 1.82” of rain near our house during the period. Other locations saw more or less. Many Smokies streams were flowing high, compared to normal yesterday, and some were stained.

Today will be cooler in the mountains and foothills. We have a chance of showers before noon, then a greater chance for thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight. There is a good chance for thunderstorms or showers, every day except Thursday and Friday, through the week and this coming weekend.

Look at the predicted temperatures below. It is going to be nice out there!

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 283 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.19 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 123 cfs. The water temperature is 68.0 degrees this morning.

Little River is rising slowly, right now. Little Pigeon River, Cataloochee Creek and Oconaluftee are rising.

The streams are not blown out, just flowing above normal which is low in July. That may change today as rain is predicted. You may find stained and high water at times. That was the case yesterday morning.

So, if you go, be aware that fishing conditions may or may not be perfect. These streams can rise quickly at any time, due to heavy rain falling upstream. You may not know it is happening. If you see stained water, see the stream rising, or hear a roar, get out of the stream, hopefully on the right side so as not to be trapped.

Fish the mid to high elevations where the water is cooler. Dry flies and nymphs will both work for you. I would use Yellow Sally Stonefly patterns or a black foam beetle for my dry fly. For sub-surface flies I would use a Green or Pink Weenie or a small Bead Head Pheasant Tail.

The tailwaters are fishing well for trout and smallmouth bass. Check the TVA website to see generation schedules before going.

The lakes are fishing well, for fly fishing anglers, when the sun is off the water. Go early or late, unless it is overcast. Poppers, foam floating flies and streamers are working.

Another person drowned on Norris Lake yesterday. A man who was docking at a gas pump, at a marina, fell from his boat and never surfaced. He had just taken off his life jacket. Many boaters drown at the dock, entering or exiting their boat. They fall, hit their head, and slip into the water unconscious. It seems we have had a drowning on one of the lakes in our area, every week, since boating recreation season began.

Over 100 volunteers removed thousands of pounds of trash and tires from the Clinch River yesterday. This is year number six for the Big Clinch River Cleanup. Over that period, volunteers have removed over 8,000 car and truck tires. What kind of person would dispose of a tire, in a river? You can read the story on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE.

I will be at the shop today, working on the fly tying department. I have been organizing and ordering weekly to re-stock materials and hooks. I am really enjoying it. I updated all of our order forms and printed hundreds of flip tags identifying each item. I think the re-organization will be finished in about one week. Then, it will require only one or two days a week for me, to keep it stocked until Fall. Then, some wholesale prices will change, so the order forms and flip tags will have to be updated.

I place the orders, and the guys at the shop receive them in the computer point of sale system, then display the new merchandise on the walls. They also package all the spooled items. It’s a team effort. Each little package is handled several times during the process.

Fly tying departments are very labor intensive, more so than any department in a fly shop. Ours is larger than most I have seen. That department uses about 750 square feet, about 10% of the total square footage in our building. I have a passion for fly tying, and we know about 33% of our customers buy fly tying materials. It has always been that way. We track sales by individual customers, so we know.

Daniel and I have been talking about expanding the size of the department, maybe next year.  

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

Byron Begley
July 22, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com