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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:36 am, the temperature is 39.7 degrees.

It is cold this morning but today will be beautiful later. It will be sunny today with a high temperature in the upper 60’s, falling to the middle 40’s tonight. It will be even warmer tomorrow, sunny again with a high in the low 70’s, dropping to the middle 40’s tomorrow night.

Little River is flowing at 129 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.72 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 74 cfs. The water temperature is 55.0 degrees and falling.

Streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than normal but a much better levels than we usually see in mid-October. The streams are flowing very clear, due to the colder water conditions. Stealth is critical to your success. Dress to blend with the forest to hopefully stay hidden from the trout.

I would fish in the lower elevations today where the water is warmer. The streams are cold in the high elevations. For example, the water temperature at Cataloochee Creek is 48.4 degrees this morning and falling. The water will be colder than that in higher elevation streams.

Fishing will be fair to good today, and improve over the next few days as the waters warm. Dry flies and nymphs will work for you. Nymphs may work better.

Lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal and the water has cooled. Smallmouth bass and other lowland river species should be active, but you will probably do best using streamers and nymphs instead of poppers and foam floating flies.

There will be a lot of generation going on at the area dams today. I did not see any tailwater fishing options at the tailwaters for wade fishing nearby but there may be some further away. Check the TVA website to see what your options are.

Surface water temperatures are falling in the lakes. Streamers or swimming nymphs will probably work best for you.

I added new dubbing material to our selection yesterday from Hareline. They will show up on the next order that will be sent tomorrow. Yesterday, I looked at the sales numbers on dubbing to rate the best selling colors. The top dry fly color is yellow. That is not surprising at all. Anglers who tie to fish in the Southern Appalachians tie lots of Yellow Sally Stonefly patterns.

Yellow was followed by Adams Gray, Sulphur Orange and Sulphur Yellow. There are many shades of olives and grays used to tie Blue Wing Olive patterns and they sell well.

Our best selling dubbing overall is Hareline’s Ice Dub. I knew that but never compared the numbers to other dubbings like I did yesterday. That was interesting to do and in the future you will have more dubbing choices at the shop and on our online store.

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

Byron Begley
October 18, 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