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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:51 am, the temperature is 55.9 degrees.
Today will be sunny and warm with a high temperature around 80 degrees, falling to the low to mid-50’s tonight. It will be sunny and warm again tomorrow. Friday will be cooler with a good chance for rain overnight. Rain chances will be greater Saturday and Sunday.
Little River is flowing at 167 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.86 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 71 cfs. The water temperature is 56.3 degrees this morning.
All streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauge sites are flowing higher than normal. Normal in October is low.
Fishing is good. Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. My dry fly choices would be a yellow or orange Stimulator or Elk Hair Caddis. A Green Weenie will work as your dropper or fished alone and weighted. Other nymphs, including Pheasant Tail, Tellico, Hare’s Ear and Prince are good choices.
Fly choices are not as important as stealth and presentation.
Lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal. Streamers or nymphs will catch smallmouth bass, rock bass and other lowland river species. You may also do well with top water flies, especially as the water warms later in the day.
We do not have many wade fishing tailwater options today. There are some so check the TVA website from the links below to see the predicted flows. Look at Cherokee Dam.
Lake fishing is fair to good. Go early when the sun is off the water. Bass and other gamefish may be interested in your topwater flies. If not, switch to swimming nymphs or streamers.
Wherever you go fishing today or tomorrow in our area, you will enjoy beautiful weather. That may not be the case Saturday through Monday, as the remnants of Hurricane Delta may affect the valley.
Jack, Ronnie and Roger are back from a 3-week fishing trip to Yellowstone. Jack came by yesterday and filled me in. The park was packed with people. They camped at Madison Junction and the campground was full for the two weeks they were there. It was sunny and warm almost the entire time. The rivers were crowded with anglers.
These guys know what they are doing. Fishing was very good for them. I think Jack said he caught three 27 inch browns in one day of fishing along with a lot of 20 inch fish thrown in. That was probably his best day. I’m sure Ronnie and Roger did well too.
The Park Service is removing brook, brown and rainbow trout using chemicals, from the upper reaches of some rivers, above natural barriers. Those areas will eventually become pure cutthroat trout fisheries. Cutthroat is the native trout species in Yellowstone.
Jack and I are planning to begin remodeling upstairs at the shop. We are expanding the fly tying department. We hope to have this finished by the end of the month.
Will is joining our staff, to help me manage the fly tying department. He will learn everything that goes on up there, including ordering, receiving and managing that part of the online store. That young man is going to get an education in the retail fly fishing business. He is going to learn it all!
Will is already an advanced fly angler and fly tyer. He sent me a photo of a 30” bull trout he caught in Oregon a week or two ago.
I am excited about the remodel and bringing Will on board. I’m sure I will learn a lot from him about fly fishing and fly tying. Actually, I already have.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
October 7, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
