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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:43 am, the temperature outside is 44.4 degrees.

It will be very warm today, tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night. High temperatures in Townsend will be about 70 degrees both days, dipping to the upper 50’s at night. Showers are likely tomorrow night and Friday.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 225 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.06 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 85 cfs. The water temperature is 51.1 degrees this morning at the low elevation gauge near Townsend.

Water temperatures are in the 40’s in the higher elevations. Those numbers will rise later today and tomorrow. All streams in the Park are flowing above normal for this date.

Fly fishing for trout in the Smoky Mountains is good. Stream flows are awesome for this time of the year. The water is chilly in the higher elevations, so I would start the day lower, then move higher later after the water warms some.

Middle or West Prongs of Little River are good choices. Fish the East Prong along the road.

I think nymphs will work best, especially early. Try Tellico, Pheasant Tail, Prince or Hare’s Ear nymph patterns. Dry flies may work. Try an Orange Stimulator or Orange Caddis. Blue wing olive dry flies or emergers might produce if you see a hatch which may occur tomorrow. Watch for midges on the surface and trout feeding on them. Depending on how warm the streams become, you may see other aquatic insect adults on the water.

This is going to be a beautiful day in the mountains. Go if you can.

Acorns are scarce in the Park this Fall and they are a very important food source for black bear. Bears are coming out of the Park, to towns and rural areas searching for food. They will be hibernating soon, and need to bulk up first. You can read an interesting story on the subject and watch the video on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE.

There are still bear paw prints left on my truck since last week. One stood on it’s hind legs, leaned on my truck and looked inside. His paws were muddy. Most of the prints have washed away by rain but I can still see what is left.

Bob told me this weekend he has a game camera outside his house to photograph wildlife. He moves it around. He got one shot of a bear looking in the window, at night, as he and his wife watched TV. There may be one looking in the big window next to my desk right now. It probably happens a lot more than I think.

We are used to seeing them around here, so we don’t think much about it. A female and her cub tried to get into our house one Summer, while I was home. I’ll never forget that. We do keep our doors shut tight and locked, so one does not come in while we are home. That happens, but not often in our community. A bear can do a lot of damage to the inside of your home. They also destroy the inside of vehicles if they get inside, which happens too.

A new neighbor moved into our area a few years ago. He did not understand the protocols of securing garbage. A bear continued to raid his garbage cans. He finally caught the bear in the act, and sprayed the animal with bear spray. The spray blew back at him. He stumbled walking backwards and fell down. When he looked up, the bear was just standing there, looking at him.

We keep our garbage inside.

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

Byron Begley
October 31, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com