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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:55 am, the temperature outside is 70.0 degrees.
Today will be warmer than usual this time of the year, again. We may see afternoon thunderstorms once again today. This weather trend will continue through Saturday, with a higher chance for thunderstorms, especially on Thursday and Saturday. Sunday should be cooler with a good chance for thunderstorms.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY
LOCATION |
HIGH |
LOW |
TOWNSEND |
85 |
69 |
GATLINBURG |
83 |
68 |
ELKMONT |
82 |
66 |
CADES COVE |
83 |
69 |
NEWFOUND GAP |
78 |
63 |
MOUNT LECONTE |
66 |
57 |
CHEROKEE |
84 |
64 |
SMOKEMONT |
80 |
63 |
BRYSON CITY |
85 |
65 |
MAGGIE VALLEY |
80 |
63 |
COSBY |
86 |
66 |
Little River is flowing at 90 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.55 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 95 cfs. The water temperature is 70.2 degrees this morning.
Fishing conditions have not changed in a while, except for a few brief periods of high water due to isolated thunderstorms.
It is not easy writing a fishing report, when conditions are the same every day. How do you write the same thing differently?
The streams are flowing low, though not lower than normal.
The streams are warm, warmer than normal. Air temperatures are much warmer than normal, day and night, but especially at night. The monthly average high temperature in September is 80 degrees. The normal low is 55 degrees.
I write a lot about stealth, when the streams are flowing low. To be successful, you have to hide from the trout. If you don’t, you may still catch them, if you are lucky. Wear muted clothing that blends in with the forest and stay as low as you can, to avoid being seen.
Fish the higher elevations streams where the water is cooler. None of us want to catch and release a trout in 70 degree water. They may die, according to experts. Dissolved oxygen is low in warm water. Limit your fishing to streams that peak at 65 degrees during the day. A stream thermometer can be very helpful to determine where that is.
We deal with low water conditions every Summer and Fall. And, we catch trout, though these conditions are not ideal.
Trout will be hiding in broken water, not out in the open, in slow pools. There are exceptions of course. Later this Fall, the brown trout will be out in the open, preparing to spawn or spawning.
Early in the mornings, or late in the evenings, you may see trout out in the open, without the protection from predators offered by broken water as cover. I suppose these trout would be considered “risk takers”. I’ve seen thousands of trout, out in the open when the streams are flowing higher, in the middle of the day. What is the difference? I don’t know for sure but maybe they feel less vulnerable when they are deeper below the surface.
Today, I would concentrate my efforts on broken water and probably catch more trout.
What about fly selection? Your guess may be just as good or better than mine. I like to use foam beetles, a Yellow Neversink Caddis or a Yellow Stimulator for my dry fly under these conditions. You could drop a Green Weenie or a Bead Head Pheasant Tail below your dry. You might weight some nymphs and do well. A Prince Nymph is always an excellent choice, no matter where you fly fish for trout. Dredge deep and you could catch a nice brown trout.
What we need is cooler water, so we can fish in the lower elevation larger streams. Maybe that is in our near future, possibly next week. If our air temperatures were normal, that would be the case.
You can still do well fishing the smaller, high elevation streams, if there is enough water. That varies from stream to stream. I would hike up Lynn Camp Prong or above Elkmont and probably catch some trout, maybe many trout.
Paula and I have our boat ready to go. It is in waiting. The rods are assembled with flies tied on. We keep a bunch of rods assembled, year round. They hang on the wall in the boat house and several are laying in the boat.
She is going to Scotland Sunday with a couple of her friends. I plan to stay here to work and fish some lakes. If it’s sunny, I’ll work. If it is overcast, I will go fishing. I enjoy working as much as fishing so it does not matter to me. I still plan to do both.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
September 5, 2018
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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