If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.

Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:19 am, the temperature outside is 72 degrees.

Today will be partly cloudy and much cooler, with a high in the upper 70’s, dipping to the mid-50’s tonight. Tomorrow will be warmer during the day, but the low will be about the same as tonight. This is going to feel like Fall!

Little River is flowing at 39.6 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.21 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 71 cfs. The lowest recorded flow was 25 cfs in 1998. The water temperature is 72.5 degrees.

Little Pigeon River at the Sevierville gauge is flowing at  94.6 cfs, 1.17 feet, compared to median flow of 127 cfs.

It rained in the Oconaluftee River watershed overnight. Flow is currently 245 cfs, 1.44 feet, which compares to median flow of 195 cfs. The river has crested at the Birdtown gauge and it is receding. The water temperature is 67.8 degrees. You might want to fish at Oconaluftee River today.

At the Tellico Plains gauge, Tellico River is flowing at 58.5 cfs, .66 feet, compared to median flow of 80 cfs. The lowest flow, recorded on this date, was 22.0 cfs in 1925.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 33.6 cfs, 3.19 feet, which compares to median flow of 42 cfs. The water temperature is 63.3 degrees this morning.

The streams are flowing low and they are very warm in the low elevations. We should see temperatures falling over the next few days. Predicted low temperatures at Mount LeConte will dip into the 40’s at night. Temps at Newfound Gap will fall to the low 50’s over the next few days.

Low water makes it even more essential to stay hidden from the trout. I talked to a lady in the shop yesterday, who had just returned from Lynn Camp Prong. She caught several brook trout. I think she told me she caught nine. She was dressed in muted clothing, as she should have been. She is obviously a good fly fisherman. She also commented on how colorful the brook trout are becoming, as they change into their spawning colors.

The lady is from Georgia. Yesterday was her first visit to our store. She told me she ties flies, so I walked upstairs with her to the fly tying department. She was impressed.

Fish the higher elevations today where the water is cooler. Dry flies and nymphs will work. I would use terrestrial imitations, beetles, ants and Green Weenies. Other fly patterns will work too. The fish are hungry and seeking food. Fish the broken water where the trout are hiding.

Fly fishing for smallmouth bass in the lowland rivers will likely be slow to fair. Today will be overcast at times. That is always helpful. Use poppers or foam floating flies and cast to the shaded areas when the sun is on the water.

This could be a good lake fishing day, due to the cloud cover. Cast to the banks with poppers, foam floating flies, streamers and Rubber Legged Dragons.

There are a few tailwaters in the region that have angler friendly flows. You may have to travel and you should be there now in most cases. Refer to the TVA website to see if your favorite trout tailwater is fishable today for you and your type of fishing.

Rain chances are low over the next few days, but temperatures are going to be closer to normal for early Fall.

I worked on our online store all day yesterday. I’ll continue with that for several weeks.

Daniel, Dave and I are meeting with Park Burson, our Regional Manager from Orvis at 9:00 am this morning. We will be seeing all the new gear that will be available early next year.

I should be receiving the new Hareline Dubbin catalog any day. That fly tying company is expanding quickly as the owners are fairly new and they are ambitious. Evidently, Hareline has hundreds of new fly tying materials and tools being offered this year. I can’t wait to see that.

I will be at the shop before 7:30 am, as usual, to clean the bathrooms and blow off the parking lot, before meeting with Park. I do that every morning and wash a couple of windows too. If I wash two or three windows every day, they are always sparkling clean. The bathrooms are cleaned every day, for you.

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

Byron Begley
September 19, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com