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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:27 am, the temperature outside is 66.4 degrees.

I wake at 4:00 am every morning, without the benefit of an alarm clock. I never set an alarm clock. I get out of bed at 5:00 am. Not this morning. I laid there listening to the rain hit our metal roof for a few minutes. That sounded so good.

The chance for rain with possible thunderstorms will continue today. Rain and thunderstorms are likely tomorrow and tomorrow night with an 80% chance. Heavy rain is possible tomorrow. Rain is in the forecast Tuesday.

Temperatures will be falling over the next few days. We’ll see highs in the 70’s and low 80’s, with lows in the 50’s at night through Thursday. Lows will be dipping into the 40’s next weekend.

Little River is flowing at 27.6 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.11 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 72 cfs. The water temperature is 70.5 degrees this morning.

The rain has just begun and it is light, so most streams are still flowing low. Tellico River is beginning to rise. Water temperatures are falling and will continue to fall this week.

Fishing will improve, starting today. Today, through Tuesday will be mostly cloudy which will benefit the angler in two ways. The water will not warm quickly and the cloud cover will help conceal you from the trout. The rain probably won’t be heavy today, but you may see water rise in some streams.

I would plan on using nymphs or dry flies. We can probably start fishing the mid to lower elevations today. Check the water temperature. Look for temperatures in the 60’s. I would avoid the very low elevations until later this week.

Fishing in the lowland rivers if probably fair at best, due to the low flows. That will hopefully change soon.

This will be a better lake fishing day due to the cloud cover. Take a rain jacket. Use poppers, foam floating flies, streamers and Rubber Legged Dragons. Watch for surface activity anywhere on the lakes. Plankton may be near the surface at times, drawing baitfish to the top. Gamefish will follow the threadfin shad, which will be following the plankton. Plankton is light sensitive.

There will be angler friendly flows on some tailwaters today. Check the TVA website from the links below to see if you can work with their schedules.

I’m going to the shop before daybreak, to start power washing the sidewalks. I need to get part of that done before we open, so you won’t trip over hoses. The only thing stopping me from doing that will be heavy rain. If I get rained out, I’ll still be happy.

Business is good at the shop. We should beat the first week of October last year by a long shot. Our best performing department this week, is the wading department. We made some changes in our strategy. Now, we are re-stocking waders and boots on a weekly basis, to avoid being out of sizes. We will tweak that over the next few weeks and months.

Our total business is up quite a bit from last year so far. I’m hoping to set a 24 year record this year. We are working to achieve that. I have some big plans for next year. Wait and you will see.

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

Byron Begley
October 6, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com