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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:01 am, the temperature outside is 70.5 degrees.
Today will be mostly cloudy with a high temperature in the low 80’s. Showers and thunderstorms will be scattered this morning and more widespread this afternoon.
Little River is flowing at 124 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.66 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 132 cfs. The water temperature is 69.6 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the Smokies are flowing near normal for this time of the year. The low elevation streams are warm. Fish the higher elevations where the water is cooler.
Dry flies and nymphs will work. Terrestrial patterns such as beetles are good dry fly choices. Yellow Sally Stonefly imitations have been producing well. A Green Weenie or Squirmy Worm is a good choice for your sub-surface fly. Fish the broken water in riffles, plunge pools and runs where the trout are hiding.
The streams are flowing low, which is normal. Stealth is of the utmost importance under these conditions. Dress to blend in. Do everything you can to avoid being seen by the trout and you will catch more. Water levels may change today due to the predicted rain and possible thunderstorms. You may find temporarily stained water at times.
Lowland river fishing is fair to good for smallmouth bass and other warmwater fish. It is supposed to be cloudy today. That is helpful. I would use top water flies such as poppers, hair bugs and foam floating flies. Streamers or nymphs may be good choices too.
There are breaks in the generation schedules at many dams today. You should be able to work with the schedules whether you are wade or boat fishing today. Refer to the TVA website from the links below to see when and if you can on your favorite tailwater.
Lake fishing is fair to good. It should be overcast today, which will extend your fishing time. I would start with poppers, hair bugs and foam floating flies. If they don’t work, switch to streamers or swimming nymphs. Be prepared and willing to change the type of structure where you are fishing. Maybe you will do well on rocky banks, or possibly better where there is woody debris in the water. Watch for thunderstorms.
I am going to spend the day photographing and adding fly tying hooks to our online store. I am working on Firehole hooks. Next, will be Firehole beads. I hope to be finished with this project by the end of the week.
I talked to TL, the sales manager at Wapsi, on the phone yesterday. He was in our shop last week, visiting here from Mountain Home, Arkansas. We buy more fly tying materials from Wapsi, than any other distributor and have been for over 25 years. They do a great job. I think they have a staff of about 50 people. Wapsi and other fly tying dyers and distributors have been extremely busy this year. They are having a tough time keeping up with the orders right now. Fly tying usually slows during the Summer months, but not this year. More people are tying more flies.
To maintain our inventory of Wapsi materials, I am now ordering about every four or five days instead of weekly. Basically, I order what sold during that time. At one point last week, we had three orders at the company that had not been shipped. Two shipped on the same day. Using this ordering system, the orders will trickle in over time.
I placed a large order early Monday. I got into the shop at 6:45 am, sanitized the store and started working on the Wapsi order. Now, when I place the next order, it will include everything that sold Monday through probably Wednesday or Thursday. This is working well. I am ordering more frequently from all of our fly tying suppliers.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
July 7, 2020
NOTICE: FLY TYERS WEEKEND HAS BEEN CANCELLED THIS YEAR. WE ARE PLANNING THE EVENT FOR 2021.
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |