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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:56 am, the temperature outside is 73.0 degrees.
This heat wave is going to continue into early next week. High temperatures in the low 90’s are predicted every day through the weekend. Rain chances are fairly low today and through the weekend.
Little River is flowing at 80.0 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.46 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 130 cfs. The river rose some yesterday after a thunderstorm blew through but it is receding now. The water temperature is 72.5 degrees this morning.
Little Pigeon River is flowing at 266 cfs, 1.68 feet, compared to median flow of 358 cfs. The river is currently rising.
Oconaluftee River, Tellico River and Cataloochee Creek are flowing at normal this morning.
Most streams in the Smokies are flowing low, which is normal in July. Water temperatures are warm, which is also normal. Fish the higher elevations where the water is cooler. Look for temps in the mid-60’s. Stay hidden from the trout and you will certainly catch more. Fish the broken water in riffles, plunge pools and deep runs. A dry and dropper rig or a weighted nymph rig are both good choices.
Most lowland rivers are flowing low. Smallmouth bass and other warmwater species will be in the deeper pools. Fish the shaded areas or go early or late. Try poppers, hair bugs or foam floating flies. If they don’t work, switch to nymphs or streamers.
There are angler friendly flows on some tailwaters today. Many will be generating this afternoon. View the TVA website from the links below to plan the day on your favorite tailwater.
Go early or late to the lakes. Fish shaded areas with poppers, hair bugs and foam floating flies. Or, you may want to try streamers or swimming nymphs. It is going to be hot out there.
We all need to stay hydrated. Heat indexes are extremely high. Drink plenty of water.
Tourist season is about over here. Kids are going back to school in a week or two. We’ll go into the usual late Summer lack of activity at the shop soon. Some of our customers are planning their trips to the Rockies, but probably not nearly as many as usual.
I can attest to the fact that there are more customers tying flies or they are tying more. Fly tying activity usually slows during the Summer months. That did not happen this year. Still, our fly tying department is pretty well stocked, though many of our suppliers have had problems keeping up with demand. Our solution to the problem has been, buying more often. I order from one of our suppliers every four days. I order what we sold during the prior four day period. We got a Wapsi order Monday, and another one yesterday. There is another one in process at their facility. They will get another order today.
Orders are going out to other suppliers weekly, when we normally order from them every other week. I got a call from Whiting Farms yesterday. They shipped an order that was placed June 18th. I will place another Whiting order this week.
We have also adjusted our inventory levels upward this year. That helps too.
We are bringing in new materials and hooks. We are running out of space, but we plan to enlarge the physical size of the department by about 40% if this trend continues. The space in our fly tying department is currently 700 square feet.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
July 17, 2020
NOTICE: FLY TYERS WEEKEND HAS BEEN CANCELLED THIS YEAR. WE ARE PLANNING FOR THE EVENT TO BE HELD IN 2021.
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |