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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:32 am, the temperature outside is 58.1 degrees.
Today and tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high temperature in the mid-80’s falling to the low 60’s at night. There is a slight chance for scattered thunderstorms tomorrow during the afternoon. Other than that, this is going to be a beautiful weekend.
Little River is flowing at 222 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.01 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 219 cfs. The water temperature is 59.5 degrees this morning.
All streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauge sites are flowing at or slightly above normal. Water temperature are good, and within the trout’s preferred range.
Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. They are feeding well. Fishing is good. Dry flies I would choose are, Yellow Stimulator, Yellow Neversink Caddis, Yellow Elk Hair Caddis, Light Cahill and Sulphur patterns. Good nymph pattern choices include Tellico, Prince, Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear, Green Weenie and other reasonable patterns.
Alex was working at the shop yesterday and showed me a photo of a 26” brown trout he caught this week. He hooked the big brown during the middle of the day, in shallow water, and was using a large black stonefly nymph. I assume he was fishing the East Prong of Little River. Catching a brown that large during the day, this time of year, in shallow water surprised me. I think it surprised him too. Catching that fish on a large black stonefly nymph was not surprising to me or him.
Lowland river fishing is good, for trout and smallmouth bass. Water levels are perfect. Water temperatures are too. Nymphs and streamers will work for both species. You might catch smallies on poppers or foam floating flies.
Here is some good news! TVA and the Corps are cutting back on generation at many dams today. I did not see sluicing mentioned either. I checked several generation schedules this morning and saw possible wade fishing opportunities below Norris, Douglas, Cherokee and South Holston dams. I even saw generation breaks at Center Hill Dam. Unless we get some heavy rain over the next few days, which is not predicted, tailwater fishing is going to be much better.
Check your favorite tailwater generation schedule from the links below before you go.
Lake fishing is heating up too. Surface temperatures are rising. Water levels are normal at many lakes. Bass, panfish and other species will be taking nymphs and streamers. Poppers and foam floating flies will probably work too. Go early or late when the sun is off the water unless it is overcast.
I don’t think we could ask for much better fishing conditions in our area. Fishing conditions are better than I’ve seen all year.
We are busy at the shop. There were five of us working yesterday. Between helping customers, the guys were working on re-arranging the shop. We continue to spread merchandise out so customers can more easily shop while social distancing. The fly department was moved to the right of the store where you enter. That has not been done since we moved into our own building 16 years ago. I really like their new layout.
I am receiving and displaying fly tying material orders. That department has been performing extremely well all year. I am making some merchandise changes too. By early next week, we will be selling Trout Hunter CDC for the first time. That is the best CDC I’ve seen. We are also switching over to Hareline Dubbin rabbit strips, cross-cut, regular 1/8” and magnum styles. There are more improvement on the horizon.
Townsend is busy. Tubing season has begun with more emphasis on social distancing and sanitizing. River Rat has developed and adapted to new protocols. I saw w a good article on the WBIR website. You can see it by CLICKING HERE. Jennifer did a great interview.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
May 16, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |