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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:45 am, the temperature is 50.5 degrees.

Today will be partly cloudy early before becoming sunny, with a high temperature in the upper 50’s. It will be chilly tonight, with a low in the middle 30’s. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high in the middle 60’s.

Little River is flowing at 89.7 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.58 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 85 cfs. The water temperature is 57 degrees this morning.

Streams in the Smokies are flowing at about normal for this date. Normal is low. Water temperatures are fine in the low to middle elevations this morning. Fishing conditions are good but you need to stay hidden from the trout. Dress to blend with the forest and you will catch more. Fish the broken water where the trout are hiding, in plunge pools, riffles and runs. Check the tails of pools too.

Lowland rivers are flowing low but at normal levels for October. Smallmouth bass are fairly active in these rivers. Nymphs and streamers will work best. Stocked trout in the lowland rivers will be very active. Nymphs, streamers and egg patterns will get their attention.

There is a lot of generation going on at the area dams. Wade fishing in the tailwaters will be limited today. There are a few more choices if you are boating. Visit the TVA website from the links below to see what your options are.

This may be a fair lake fishing day. I like the cloud cover predicted early. Expect winds from the north at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Dress warm. Cast to the banks with streamers and swimming nymphs.

Tourists and locals are flocking to the mountains to enjoy this beautiful Fall. Traffic is fairly heavy in town and in the Smokies, especially on weekends. A lot of people are camping.

I talked to Danny, our City Recorder yesterday. He told me Townsend’s share of the sales tax revenue is much higher than budget again this year, due to Covid. People want to get out of the house and get out of town.

Supply chain issues have affected our business, like it has everyone else. We have adjusted by ordering from companies that we know have available stock. We are also ordering more often. That has helped. Our store has remained stocked well this year, better than last year.

Buying merchandise is a huge job in a fly shop. Look at all of the small items we sell. I oversee the fly tying department. Every week Will and I order hundreds of different items and we never get everything we order. So, we repeat the next week and always hope for better results. Some items that have been out of stock for a while are suddenly available.

Check out all of those flies. David Anderson takes care of keeping the fly department stocked. I think he has done an exceptional job. We have more flies available for sale than ever before.

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

Byron Begley
October 26, 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