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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:43 am, the temperature outside is 66.2 degrees.

It will be warm today and through the weekend, much warmer than normal. There is a low chance for thunderstorms each day.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 154 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.82 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 73 cfs. The water temperature is 66.7 degrees this morning.

We continue to be blessed with higher than normal stream flows in the Smoky Mountains, thanks to the high amount of rain we got in September. Rain is predicted next week, beginning Monday. The chance for rain is higher Wednesday and through the next weekend. So, we may enjoy better than normal fishing through mid-October. It will be cooler next week beginning Thursday.

Right now, it is looking more like Fall and feeling like Summer.

Fishing is good. Go to the mid to higher elevations where the water is cooler.

You can still use fly patterns that worked during the Summer months. Terrestrials are a good choice. Try foam beetles and Green Weenies. I would also use a Smoky Mountain Candy, Yellow Stimulator, Elk Hair Caddis or a Parachute Adams for my dry fly selection. Normal nymphs should work, like Pheasant Tail, Prince, Tellico and other reasonable nymphs.

Stealth is very important to your success. Try not to let the trout see you.

If it is sunny, and it probably will be, concentrate on the shaded areas of streams. Smaller streams in the backcountry are more shaded, until the leaves fall. Leaves are falling. You will find them in the streams. You may catch several. We all hate that.

Today, I would fish above Elkmont, Lynn Camp Prong, or other smaller streams in the Park.

Paula and I took our boat to one of the lakes on the Little Tennessee River yesterday. It was sunny and the lake was low. We started fishing in a cove, where we usually catch largemouth bass and bluegill. We did not see one fish. That was highly unusual. But, we usually don’t go on sunny day. So, we spent the afternoon cruising and relaxing. Cruising is relaxing.

Had it been overcast, everything would have been different.

Anglers in two boats were trolling. They were catching yellow perch and rainbow trout. One fisherman told us the trout were twenty feet below the surface, where the water is cold. The surface temperature was about 76 degrees everywhere.

I watched the chart plotter and depth finder as we cruised. Sure enough, I saw a lot of fish on the monitor, between ten and twenty feet below the surface.

Yellow perch have populated many of our lakes. And, they are growing to be huge. We sometimes catch them on flies. A Wooly Bugger works well for me, though I’m not actually trying to catch perch. Dan caught a 16” yellow perch a few weeks ago. I think that might have been a state record. He released the fish.

We saw Ronnie at the lake yesterday and talked to him for a while. Ronnie is our retired police chief. He is a walleye fisherman. He was not fishing, just cruising, like we did.

Ronnie told us some yellow perch stories. One of his friends caught one, that would have been a world record. Evidently, yellow perch love living in Tennessee. They are not native to the state. Some migrated down from the north. Other lakes that do not have locks, were stocked by individuals, according to Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The agency has not stocked them, as they are considered exotic in Tennessee.

A crew will be sealcoating and striping our parking lot beginning tomorrow. This is a 4-day process. Less than half of the parking lot will be available for use tomorrow and Sunday. They will work on the balance of the lot, Monday and Tuesday. Our staff and students will be parking off premises through the weekend, so more parking will be available to you. We have the capacity to park 50 cars or trucks in our lot.

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

Byron Begley
October 5, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com

You do not want to miss Project Healing Waters, Smoky Mountain Grand Slam event this weekend. It all starts Friday night October 5th, at the fundraiser banquet. The banquet will be held at The Jackson Terminal in Knoxville at 6 pm. CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS and learn more.

Among the auction prizes, are some flies tied by Walter Babb. One box, Walter calls the “Back Country Dry Flies” contains 12 dozen flies. Walter’s flies are cherished my many anglers, and this is a huge collection. Walter also donated three more boxes with 6 flies each, that will be auctioned.

Jackson Terminal is located at 213 W. Jackson Avenue in Knoxville. Be there!