The Fishing Report 11/19/21 Great Smoky Mountains National Park and East Tennessee Time of Readings 4:39 am Eastern Time Zone : CFS=Cubic Feet Per Second
Water Temperature Little River
Stream Flow
Sunrise
Sunset
Rainfall 2021 YTD Knoxville Apt
Rainfall Normal YTD Knoxville Apt
Townsend, Tennessee - Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina
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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:39 am, the temperature is 30.2 degrees.
It will be sunny today with a high temperature around 50 degrees falling to the upper 20’s tonight. Tomorrow will be sunny and a little warmer, with highs in the middle to upper 50’s and a low in the middle 30’s. Rain will arrive Sunday and Sunday night. Expect a high around 60 degrees with a low in the middle 30’s.
Little River is flowing low at 93.8 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.60 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 158 cfs. The water temperature is 49.5 degrees this morning.
All streams in the mountains that have USGS gauge sites are flowing below median flow. Water temperatures are cool and falling right now. Fish in the low elevations today where the water is warmer. Nymph rigs will likely work best for you.
Lowland rivers are flowing lower than normal. Little River is flowing very low. You might catch smallmouth bass in the rivers, but I think they will be fairly inactive. Trout, where they are stocked will be feeding. Use streamers, nymphs, egg patterns and Squirmy Worms.
Tailwater fishing options vary today but there are some. You may have to go early or you may have to go later. You will have more options if you are boating. Visit the TVA website from the links below to see what is going on at your favorite tailwater.
Visitors will be arriving in Townsend this weekend and early next week to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Many will be camping. They will be treated with much cooler temperatures with the possibility of snow showers in the high elevations. Heavy snow is not predicted. No snow is predicted in the valley next week.
A very effective fly to catch trout and other species is the Squirmy Worm or Squirmy Wormy. These flies work very well in the Smokies. The material used to tie these flies is a synthetic “rubber like” lively round strand, available in many different colors. Pink is the most popular color. Red comes in close to the top.
Every weekend, our computer ordering system automatically churns out orders to our fly tying suppliers. One is Wapsi, where I buy Squirmy Worm material. Almost every week, their order has several packs of Squirmy Worm material in the box. Right now there are 4 packs of Purple and two packs of Pink in my office, waiting to be received and displayed. This stuff is very popular.
I found an excellent YouTube tutorial from the folks at Fly Fish Food, showing you one way to tie a Squirmy Wormy. The tyer is Cheech. I think Will met Cheech, but I’m not positive. If you have never tied a fly, watch this one. Squirmy Worms are easy to tie. Anyone can do it if they have enough fingers. And, these flies work.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
November 19, 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.