Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:00 am, the temperature is 64.9 degrees.
Good Sunday morning to you. This is going to be another beautiful and comfortable day. It will be mostly sunny with a high temperature in the middle 80’s with no chance for rain. We do have a slight chance for thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. Expect a high temperature in the middle 80’s tomorrow and a low in the low 60’s tomorrow night.
Little River is flowing at 205 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.01 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 114 cfs. The water temperature is 66.3 degrees this morning at the low elevation USGS gauge site near Townsend.
Most streams in the mountains are flowing near normal with some flowing higher, including Little River. Trout are actively feeding. You may want to fish in the middle to higher elevations today, where the water is cooler.
Terrestrial insects are an important food source for trout right now. A beetle dry fly with an ant or Green Weenie dropper is a good combination to use in August. The beetle also serves as your strike indicator.
Most lowland rivers exiting the mountains and flowing through the valleys are at normal levels for this time of the year. Some are flowing higher than normal. Fishing for smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish is good. Fish in the deeper pools and runs using nymphs, streamers, poppers, foam floating flies and crayfish patterns. Terrestrial insect patterns are also a good fly choice.
Lake fishing will be best early or late when the sun is low. Cast to the banks with streamers, swimming nymphs, poppers or foam floating flies. When the sun is higher, find shaded banks to fish. Larger game fish may be holding in deeper water. Streamers and swimming nymphs may work best for you. Try a large weighted Wooly Bugger or a weighted damsel fly nymph.
TVA and the Corps will begin their daily generation early this morning or early afternoon at many dams. Plan on going early and choose the right spots to fish before the water comes up. The generation schedules vary so check the TVA website to plan your tailwater fishing day.
I am planning to be off today. I will be at the shop early tomorrow morning, to place the weekly fly tying material and tool orders, before our suppliers open. I have been doing that lately, allowing me to replenish what sells on Sundays, which is usually a busy fly tying day. Most orders I place early Monday morning arrive at the shop by the next weekend. Then, the process starts again.
Like last year, fly tying materials and tool sales have really picked up in August. The fly tying season has been starting earlier than usual. I spend the day working in the fly tying department, greeting customers and helping them make choices while ordering and receiving weekly shipments. I spend a lot of time packaging thread and other spooled items. If you ever wondered who packages all of that stuff, it’s me.
So far this month, sales in the fly tying department are up 82% over last year and up 142% over the same period in 2020. Fly tying sales for the first 13 days of August are up 283% over the same period in 2019. I think we can safely say this is a trend.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
August 14, 2022
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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