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 5:01 am, the temperature is 62.2 degrees.

It will be mostly cloudy today with a high temperature in the mid-70’s. Showers will move into the area tonight and continue through Sunday night. High temperatures will be in the low to mid-70’s, falling to the mid-60’s at night.

Little River is flowing at 129 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.77 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 79 cfs. The water temperature is 59.0 degrees this morning.

Streams in the Smokies that are transmitting data from USGS sites are flowing higher than normal.

This will be a perfect fishing day in the mountains. It will be overcast. Stream flows are higher than normal. Normal in October is low. Water temperatures are very good. Trout are actively feeding. Dry flies and nymphs will work.

Stealth and fly presentation are more important to your success than fly choices. Dress to blend with the forest so you will not be seen by the trout. Show the fish your leader, not your fly line and get a good drift.

Lowland river fishing will be good today. Overcast skies are very helpful. The rivers are warmer so smallmouth bass and other lowland species will be active. Streamers or nymphs will work. You may also do well using top water flies including poppers, foam floating flies and hair bugs.

TVA and the Corps are churning water at many dams today. Tailwater wade fishing options are limited. You will find some opportunities so check the TVA website to see what they are.

This will be an excellent lake fishing day due to the overcast conditions. Fly fishing on lakes is usually much better on cloudy days or that is what I have found. The wind is supposed to be out of the south at around five miles per hour. No rain is predicted. I would go!

Start with hair bugs, foam floating flies or poppers. That should work. If not, switch to streamers or swimming nymphs. Whether you are fly fishing for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, panfish, carp, or other species, consider today an opportunity and take advantage of it.

I am still tying deer hair bugs, one or more every day. I will be off tomorrow afternoon and plan to tie more. Learning to make these creations with stacked deer hair has been a journey. There are new tricks and skills to be learned. I love learning new tricks and skills.

Stacking, spinning and trimming is the easy part, now that I have that figured out. Trimming around the rubber legs is easier if you leave them attached to each other, then separate them after the bug is finished. My tails for poppers have always been made using five strands of round rubber legs, attached to each other first, then separated later.

Attaching the plastic eyes as been my toughest challenge. I’m getting better at cutting out the eye sockets. I’ve tried every kind of glue you can think of, thick Super Glue, epoxy, Zap Goo and others. I’m having the best luck with Zap Goo. That stuff is thick, stringy and gooey and it has been hard to work with.

Last night I tried warming the glue tube in a glass of hot water and that seemed to help. I then applied it to the socket using a toothpick and popped the eye in. That worked better than anything I have tried. I may find something better, but this method is working best for me at this point.

Your advice would be most appreciated.

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

Byron Begley
October 9, 2020

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com