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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:53 am, the temperature is 58.8 degrees.
It will be partly cloudy today with a low chance for thunderstorms and a high temperature in the mid to upper 70’s. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm are likely tomorrow with a high temperature around 70 degrees. It will be partly cloudy Sunday with a lower chance for scattered thunderstorms and a high temperature in the mid-70’s.
Little River is flowing at 107 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.68 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 77 cfs. The water temperature is 58.5 degrees this morning.
Streams in the mountains are flowing higher than normal. Normal in October is low. Water temperatures are well within the trout’s preferred range in the low to mid elevations.
Fishing in the Smokies is good. Unless we get too much rain tomorrow, which seems unlikely, fishing will be good all weekend.
Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. More important than fly pattern selection is stealth and fly presentation. Stay hidden from the trout, don’t spook them with your casts, get a good drift and you will catch more.
The lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal. Water temperatures are fair to good for smallmouth bass and other lowland species feeding activity. It will be cloudy at times today and more so tomorrow which is a good condition for fishing. Streamers and nymphs will probably work best but top water flies may produce too. If you are fishing for stocked trout, the conditions are excellent. Nymphs and streamers will likely work best.
As usual lately, there are wade fishing opportunities on a few tailwaters in east and middle Tennessee today. If you are boating, you will have more options. Refer to the TVA website from the links below to see where and when to fish on the tailwaters.
This could be a very good lake fishing weekend thanks to partly cloudy to cloudy conditions and fairly warm surface water. Winds will be favorable each day, topping out at about 5 miles per hour. I would start with top water flies, poppers, hair bugs or foam floating flies. If bass or other gamefish are not feeding on the surface, switch to streamers or swimming nymphs.
It’s hard to beat a large weighted Wooly Bugger for your lake fishing streamers. I tie mine on 1/0 to 2/0 jig hooks with about 20 wraps of .20 lead free wire for weight. Black and purple are good colors to use.
I also tie a version of Rubber Legged Dragons to use for swimming nymphs in many colors ranging from chartreuse, rusty orange and olive plus others. Dragons work for bass, panfish and other gamefish. I weight mine with bead chain eyes in black or gold. I tie mine with rabbit fur for the tail and collar, cut from magnum strips. These flies are much more durable tied with rabbit instead of marabou. If you are catching bluegill or shellcrackers, durability is essential. I de-barb my hooks so they are easier to remove from the small mouth of a panfish. That also causes less injury to the fish you intend to release.
Though we have a very large fly tying department, and it will be much larger in about two weeks, only about a third of our customers tie flies. Tying your own flies gives you many more options than buying them. If you tie, you can design your own to the specs that work best for you, including size, color and weight. Additionally, there is the satisfaction that you create your own flies that catch fish, no matter what type of fly fishing you do.
More people tie flies during the cold months when fishing opportunities are limited.
Jack and I are remodeling and enlarging the fly tying department. You won’t notice now, except for the noise. Everything is being done behind a wall and out of sight. The last thing we will do is tear out a ten foot section of a wall to allow access for you to the new area. Of course, I will rearrange the materials and tools for a ideal presentation and to make your shopping a better experience.
Today, Jack will be sanding the seams and screw holes on the third coat of sheetrock mud, preparing to paint. I will be painting the new pegboard panels all day. We plan to paint the walls Monday and hang the new pegboard Tuesday. I have a stack of boxes containing new lighting that we will install next week.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
October 23, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
