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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:44 am, the temperature is 58.5 degrees.

Today will be mostly sunny with a high temperature in the upper 70’s, dropping to the high 50’s again tonight. Tomorrow through Friday will mostly sunny and slightly warmer. Cooler air with showers likely is predicted Saturday with a high in the upper 60’s, falling to the middle 40’s Saturday night. Sunday should be sunny and cool with a high temperature in the middle to upper 60’s with a low in the lower 40’s.

Little River is flowing at 205 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.00 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 74 cfs. The water temperature is 61.9 degrees this morning.

Streams in the mountains are flowing higher than normal and at good fishing levels. Water temperatures are well within the trout’s preferred range. Trout will be actively feeding at most elevations. Nymphs and dry flies will produce for you.

Lowland rivers exiting the mountains and flowing through the valleys are at good fishing levels. Fishing for smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish should be good today and through Friday. Try poppers, foam floating flies, streamers, nymphs or crayfish patterns.

Wade fishing opportunities on the area tailwaters will be limited today due to generation activity at most dams. If you are boating you have more options. Check the TVA website to hopefully find breaks in the generation that you can work with at some dams.

Lake fishing today will be fair to good but you will do best early or late when the sun is low and the banks are dimly lit. Cast to the banks with poppers, foam floating flies, streamers or swimming nymphs to see what works best for you. Winds are predicted to be calm becoming west at 5 miles per hour this afternoon.

We have been busy at the shop. A lot of our customers are enjoying this beautiful weather and excellent fishing conditions in the free flowing streams where water levels are more like we see in the Spring. October is usually dry, and streams are normally flowing low.

Rainfall, recorded at the Knoxville Airport is way higher than normal, with 3.46 inches reported this month so far. That compares to normal for the month on this date of 1.03 inches, a 2.43 inch surplus.

It has been warm too, warmer than normal. We will see that continue through Friday. The long term weather forecast predicts cooler temperatures beginning this weekend and continuing through October 26th. It will feel more like Fall beginning Saturday.

Like most businesses in America, we have had problems with supply shortages during the past year. To negate the affects of shortages, we have reacted by ordering more often, and buying more of what we know is in stock.

I oversee the fly tying department which has a huge number of items to order, receive and track. Some items we normally stock have not been available for months, with a some being out of stock from our suppliers for a year or more. Will and I have worked, planned and coped with this by ordering more often and stocking more of the best-selling items.

Every morning, I update a list of fly tying materials and tools, that are sold on our online store, but out of stock. That updated list is on a clip board hanging on the wall at the entrance to Will’s office. The number varies slightly each day, but it usually hovers around 5% of the total this year.

I have talked to the sales managers at some of our larger suppliers recently and it appears the situation is improving. When we find an item that has been out of stock but is now in stock from our suppliers, we order more than usual, increasing the number of those items in our inventory. I would like to see that out of stock percentage at 2% or lower. We have almost 2,000 fly tying related items on our online store and we are adding more.

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

Byron Begley
October 12, 2021

WALTER BABB MADE BAMBOO FLY RODS FOR SALE – CLICK HERE

Walter is selling a selection of over 50 bamboo fly rods. All but one was made by him. The other one was custom made for Walter by Walton Powell. Read the description of each rod on the list and contact him if you are interested in buying one or more than one. Even if you are not interested in a purchase, this web page is very interesting to read. Walter has made over 285 bamboo rods over the past 20-years. You will be working directly with Walter on a purchase and you can test cast the rods before you buy one at his home. Or, call him and he will ship a rod to you. His contact information is on the web page he and I created.

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com