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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. It is raining this morning here this morning. They got the tent taken down before it got too wet. I can't imagine how heavy that would be after a good soaking.
Rain is in the forecast for the rest of the day and all day tomorrow. They aren't calling for large amounts so it shouldn't mess up fishing for too long. After tomorrow temperatures will drop down to a more seasonable 50-60F with cooler nights.
Nymphs have been working better in the mornings. A dry / dropper set up can be very effective. Maybe try a Smoky Mountain Candy on top with a Pheasant Tail or Prince Nymph below. After the rain, a Squirmy Worm could be very effective.
We have a Trout In the Classroom tank here at the Shop. The Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been gracious enough to let us have it until the spring school semester when it will be moved to an elementary school for the kids. This is a great, fun program that teached students about the fish, water cycles, water chemistry etc. The tanks cost a fairly sizable amount of money to purchase so the Little River Chapter is always thankful for donations to help keep the program running.
Ok....that being said.. having a tank full of baby rainbow trout in it has been fun and educational for us. Seeing the eggs hatch and how fast the fry become little trout was amazing. As soon as we released them into the main tank they immediately found the current which runs through the tank. They lined up waiting....just like in the stream.
The other thing that has been fascinating to me is how they have positioned themselves in the water column. Some are at the top of the tank, a few are in the middle level but the vast majority of the trout are at the bottom. Walter Babb told me years ago that when you are fishing your flies needs to be within 6 inches of the top of the water or within 6 inches of the bottom. That had made sense to me back then but actually getting to see it really proved it. We like to fish dry flies. I especially prefer fishing dries instead of nymphs. When you look at where the trout are in the tank you realize how few fish are up in that "dry fly" range. 80 plus percent of the trout are down on the bottom which makes sense since mayfly, caddis fly and stoneflies spend most of there life cycle clinging to rocks on the bottom of the river. #splitshotareyourfriend
Fly Tyer's Weekend was a great success. We had excellent attendence on Saturday and good turnout on Sunday. I'm very please with all the work that everyone here at the Shop put into this event. Anthony Hipps did a great job all year getting in contact with the tyers and organizing them to show up. Dave Carson kept everything organized and running smoothly here this weekend. John, Paul, Chuck, and Glenn kept the Shop in control. Mark Brown and Kris Nichols were a great help with parking and greeting folks. The ladies from Casting For Recovery (and Pat) had some wonderful food and cookies. The hotdogs had so much goodness on them you had to eat them with a fork. Byron and Paula finally got to actually enjoy one of these big events without having the stress or worry about anything. I don't think I could ask for a better group of people to work with.
If you weren't able to make it this weekend, we had 40+ folks doing fly tying demonstrations over a two day event. The people from the Fly Fishing Museum in Bryson City were on hand. If you haven't been over there to check it out the museum is a fun day trip. Mike Kesselring brought his extensive collection of flies. I'm not sure how many flies he has but it took up 4, eight foot long tables to show. John Reinhardt was manning the Trout Unlimited tables. John is always the life of the party.
My sincere thanks go out to all who tied, helped out and especially to all of you who came by to watch.
I better get this report posted before I have to change the date on it. Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Daniel Drake
November 6, 2017
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
