If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.

Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:25 am, the temperature outside is a 34.0 degrees.

Today will be mostly cloudy with a high temperature in the mid-40’s. Tonight’s low temperature will drop to 30 degrees or lower. Expect highs in the 30’s to low 40’s through the weekend with lows in the 20’s. There is a slight chance for rain Friday and snow showers Saturday.

Little River is flowing at 175 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.96 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 220 cfs. The water temperature is 44.6 degrees this morning.

The water temps are falling. We may see a slight rise today, but through the weekend, the water is going to be cold. Fishing will be slow. One exception could be post spawn brown trout. They may be feeding. You could catch one.

Use nymphs and get them down. You can use a strike indicator, but you might do best fishing without one. Without a strike indicator, holding your nymph or nymphs at a pre-determined depth, you can vary the depth you are fishing by raising or lowering your fly rod. It is harder to detect strikes. Keep your leader tight and your fly line off the water as much as you can.

Should you use two nymphs or one? I would rather fish with one. I get less tangles. Many anglers use two. That doubles your chances, right? Maybe. I fish with two at times and will be next week. Or, maybe I won’t.

I’ve watched Walter Babb catch an amazing number of trout, using two nymphs or wet flies. He is an excellent fly fisherman. He has if figured out. I’m not sure if he still does this, but his method for attaching the flies differs from many rigs I’ve seen used.

He ties tippet material to his leader using a blood knot, but leaves one of the pieces long, where he ties on the top fly. Then, he ties the bottom fly to the piece of tippet below, joined by the blood knot.

Another method is tying on a fly, then tying a piece of tippet to the bend of the hook on the top fly, and tying the bottom fly to that piece of tippet.

You can also use a tippet ring. Connect two pieces of tippet to the ring, one for the top fly which is shorter, and one to the the longer piece for the bottom or “anchor” fly. You can add split shot to the longer piece of tippet, where your anchor fly is tied on.

I found a short article this morning on the subject. You can read it by CLICKING HERE. The article is on the Hatch Magazine website. It is titled, “One fly or two? Does fishing multiple flies hurt more than it helps?”

A dry fly with a dropper is a good method for catching trout in the Smokies during the warmer months when trout are very actively feeding on top or near the surface. I know a lot of good anglers who would not do it any other way. It works here.

I still can’t help but be annoyed by tangles caused by fishing two flies, especially two nymphs. I would rather catch less fish and not have to deal with tangles. I have also hooked myself, trying to land and unhook a trout using a double rig. That other fly is going to get you at some point, when the trout is thrashing around in your net or hand.

So, I prefer one fly and less aggravation.

Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) released three cubs Monday. CLICK HERE to read the article on the Daily Times website. Click on the arrows and look at the photos. Two of the cubs arrived at ABR in April and weighed 4.02 and 5.5 pounds. The third came in August and weighed 22 pounds.

You should see the size of these bears now. They all weigh over 100 pounds. Bear cubs eat well at ABR.

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

Byron Begley
December 7, 2017

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com