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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:11 am, the temperature outside is 52.7 degrees.
It will be mostly cloudy today with a high temperature in the mid to upper 70’s. We have a 30% chance for showers and thunderstorms mainly this afternoon. Rain chances increase tomorrow and Thursday. Friday will be sunny and cooler with a high in the 50’s.
Little River is flowing at 287 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.19 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 371 cfs.
Most if not all streams in the mountains are flowing at or below normal for this date. Water temperatures are excellent for trout feeding activity, especially in the lower elevations.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is temporarily closed at least until April 30th. During this time, you may want to try the Cherokee National Forest or other national forests. As far as I know, they are open to fishing. Check before you go.
Nymphs and dry flies will work.
Lowland river fishing is improving as the water warms. Trout, bass and other fish will be active. Nymphs and streamers will be the ticket. At some point, when the water reaches the right temperature, fishing for smallmouth bass with poppers and foam floating flies will produce.
Lake fishing is improving in shallow water due to rising surface temperatures. Streamers are probably your best bet now. Depending on the lake you are fishing, you may find bass taking poppers and foam floating flies. It never hurts to try.
Rubber Legged Dragons are what I would use for bluegill and shellcrackers. The big ones are probably still holding fairly deep. Cast your weighted Dragon, let it sink, and slowly retrieve. I tie Dragons in just about every color you can think of. My favorite colors are rusty orange and chartreuse. Most of mine are weighted with bead chain eyes. This method also works during the hot months, when the larger panfish are holding deeper.
Flows on the tailwaters are improving. I saw less sluicing at the dams this morning. There are breaks in the generation at a couple of the dams, Douglas and South Holston, early this morning. They will be generating at both soon. I hope this continues. Maybe we will be wade fishing on the tailwaters soon.
Farm pond fishing is fairly good and it will improve. If you are lucky enough to have access to a farm pond, give it a try.
We are still there for you. Call us at 865-448-9459. Three to four of us are working at the shop every day. We are taking phone calls from customers for curbside pickup and mail order. Customers are ordering from our online store. We are there between 9 am and 4 pm, seven days.
I go in early to sanitize everything I can think of that we touch, before the other staff arrives. That includes light switches, computer equipment, door knobs, counter surfaces and of course, rest rooms. I have that down to a routine that takes one hour. I’m getting used to the smell of chlorine.
I am adding hooks and beads to the online store. We are already selling more. I ordered a lot of hooks and beads yesterday, though they were just re-stocked Sunday. This is going to be my big project over the next few months. It is a slow process. First, I photograph the item and load it into my Mac to prepare the image for the web in Photoshop. I type a short description and pick the sizes to be shown on the page. There is a lot of other stuff to do for each item.
Large projects like this make me feel like I am accomplishing something that will be important to us and you in the near future and long term. We talked about doing this for years. We knew it would be successful. I wondered how I was going to keep all of those materials in stock. Our fly tying department has a lot of items to track, order and receive. I guess I will have to adjust to something new as the business grows.
Photographing materials without straight lines is going to be a new learning experience. That is going to be the challenge. Trying to photograph a bucktail, without leaving shadows on the background is a good example. All of the items on our online store have no background. I have not figured out how to do it yet. Maybe it is impossible.
Look at the flies on our online store. They are suspended in the air, without being held in a fly tying vise. That is unique and it is something I learned to do over the years of frustrating trial and error.
Fly shops and other businesses are adapting to the temporary conditions we find ourselves in. We have been adapting for 25 years. My friends who own fly shops are adapting. Everyone is adapting. Adapting is nothing new. We have to be flexible.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 7, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |