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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:09 am, the temperature outside is 53.4 degrees.

Today will be mostly sunny and warm, in the low 80’s, dropping to the mid-50’s tonight. A cold front will move into the area tomorrow, bringing high temperatures in the upper 60’s, dipping to the high 40’s tomorrow night. There is a 20% to 30% chance for rain tomorrow. Sunday will be warmer, in the mid-70’s.

Little River is flowing at 29.7 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.14 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 79 cfs. The lowest recorded flow on this date was 17.8 cfs in 2008. The water temperature is 65.5 degrees.

All streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauges are flowing below median flow this morning. The streams are all much cooler.

Lower water temperatures like we have now, offer opportunities to fish the lower elevations, where the rivers are larger. This cooling trend will continue through the weekend, and next week.

We also have a high chance for rain next week,  on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Though the streams are flowing low, fishing will improve over the next few days.

Dry flies and nymphs will work. Fish the broken water where the trout are hiding. Stealth and presentation are essential to your success. Don’t let the trout see you, don’t spook them, get a good drift, and you will catch more.

I can’t find any information about Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) trout stocking plans, in the lowland rivers. Stocking of trout was postponed due to high water temperatures and low water conditions. It looks like the temperature problem is over for the year but the water is still low. Hopefully TWRA will be stocking Little River and other rivers soon.

There are fishing opportunities on some of our tailwaters today. Refer to the TVA website from the links below to see if you can work with their generation schedules.

Wildlife biologists are saying the black bears are getting plenty of food, mostly from an abundance of acorns. The mast crop is good. Bears will be gaining plenty of weight, to make it through the Winter. Well-fed sows give birth to more cubs. You can read more on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE.

Work on the pedestrian bridges in Townsend will be wrapping up later this year. The Dark Island swinging bridge was repaired and it is now open. That bridge is located near The Abbey Pub in town. Learn more about the Townsend Abbey by CLICKING HERE.

A crew is repairing the Kinzel Springs swinging bridge on the outskirts of town, toward Maryville. It will hopefully be open by Thanksgiving.

The Sunshine bridge is becoming a covered bridge. This bridge will be used by pedestrians and bicyclers. It should be open by the end of the year.

You can read more about these bridges on the Daily Times website by CLICKING HERE.

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

Byron Begley
October 11, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com