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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:49 am, the temperature outside is 41.5 degrees.

Today will be a little warmer, with a high temperature in the low 50’s. It is raining now. Rain is expected all day. We could get one half inch. Tonight will be warm, in the upper 40’s, with a lower chance for rain. Sunday will be much warmer, with a high temperature near 60 degrees. It will be mostly cloudy. There is a 40% chance for rain tomorrow.

Little River is flowing at 264 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.14 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 386 cfs. The water temperature is 43.5 degrees this morning.

Fishing has been fairly slow, due to the cold water temperatures. Fishing may improve some today. I think tomorrow will offer the best fishing this weekend, and that may not be good fishing. I’m thinking “Fair” at this point. It is hard to say what the water temps will climb to today and tomorrow. The rain will be somewhat warm. There is still some snow in the mountains, that will melt.

Water temperatures have been bouncing around in the low 40’s, at the low elevations, for over two days. The streams have been colder than that, in the higher elevations. Last night, I could still see snow of the mountains we view from our house.

That will change next week. It will be much warmer during the days and nights. Fishing will improve every day, beginning tomorrow, and getting better as the week progresses.

If you go fishing this weekend in the Smoky Mountains, start with nymphs. Use a theremometer to check the water temperature occasionally. If you see aquatic insects on the water, you may not see trout rising to them. But, the trout could be feeding under the surface. Nymphs or wet flies might work. If trout are rising to the surface, switch to dry flies. I would go equipped with Parachute Adams dry flies in several sizes. You may want to drop a nymph off the dry. Try a bead head pheasant tail.

It will be overcast, which is one condition that will be favorable. Take a rain jacket.

Today, there will be a Women’s Beginner Fly Fishing Class at the shop. I think we have 27 students. The instructors will all be women. Both classrooms are set up for indoor training. Classes will include learning about equipment. Orvis and Simms both sent us one of each size of women’s waders, for the students to try on.

There will be a fly tying class, a class on rigging, and casting. The classes will be held simultaneously. By the end of the day, each student will have attended every class.

Dave and Daniel put this together. The class is free. I think the only advertising was done through social media and word of mouth. I did not advertise it here on in newsletters, because I don’t know much about it. I work at home, and stay out of the day to day activities at the shop.  

But, I’m going to be there today, watching the classes and taking photos.

I am setting up a Women’ Fly Fishing Gear department on our online store. It is live now, but not very far along. You can see it by CLICKING HERE. It will look much better in a few days. Most women’s specific gear is wearable, like vests, waders, socks, wading jackets and wading boots. Some fly rods are made with slimmer grips for women. But, most gear is suitable for both men and women.

Women make up over 30% of fly fishing participants, according to an article in the New York Times. You can read that article by CLICKING HERE.

I am anxious to see how this works out. I know a lot of planning went into this large class.

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

Byron Begley
March 24, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com