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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:52 am, the temperature is 53.2 degrees.

It will be sunny today with a high temperature in the mid-70’s. There is a chance for showers tonight and tomorrow morning. It will be cloudy Friday with a high temperature only reaching the upper 50’s and falling in the high 30’s tomorrow night. The weekend will be sunny and chilly with highs in the 60’s.

Little River is flowing at 199 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.03 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 88 cfs. The water temperature is 55.9 degrees this morning.

All streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauge sites are flowing higher than normal but at good fishable levels. Water temperatures are very good in the low to mid elevations.

Nymphs will work. Dry flies may produce too. Fishing conditions are excellent.

Lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal and very fishable. Streamers and nymphs will certainly work for smallmouth bass and other lowland species. Try top water flies too. Trout are being stocked in many of these rivers now that the water temperatures have fallen. Trout should be stocked in Little River this week, and that may have already happened. None of us at the shop know for sure.

If you are hoping to wade fish on one of the trout tailwaters in east or middle Tennessee today, the options are limited but there are a few generation schedules you can work with. Check the TVA website to see what your choices are today.

It is supposed to be sunny today so you should fish on the lakes early or late. It may be breezy at times. Winds are predicted to be between 5 and 10 miles per hour. I think streamers or swimming nymphs will work best but top water lies may too. I would start with poppers, hair bugs or foam floating flies first.

Jack and I are remodeling the second floor of the shop to expand our fly tying department. We are making a lot of progress. Materials were delivered yesterday. He and I moved the studs and sheetrock upstairs via the fire escape. That was a big job that took about two hours.

I was writing the fishing report early yesterday morning and heard noise outside. I thought a bear might have been trying to get into my truck and Paula’s car. We keep them locked now because bears have learned to open car doors. She heard the noise too and flipped on some outside lighting, but didn’t see anything.

We found out later, a bear had taken our front door mat to the carport and bit a big chunk out of it. This mat is big, heavy and not edible. The same thing happened to one of our neighbors. A bear took one of their door mats. They found it later in the forest nearby and chewed to shreds.

It must be the same bear, one that has a fondness for door mats.

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

Byron Begley
October 15, 2020

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com