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 5:34 am, the temperature outside is 51.4 degrees.

Today will be very warm, with a high temperature in the mid to upper 60’s. Tonight and tomorrow will be warm. Expect a low around 50 tonight and a high in the low 60’s tomorrow.

Severe thunderstorms are expected tonight in the Tennessee Valley. The National Weather Service is warning “tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds are expected across the Plateau, parts of the Central and Southern Valley, and Southwest North Carolina late this afternoon and evening.”

Showers and thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow. Then, a cold front will move in tomorrow night, lasting through Wednesday night. Lows will dip to the 30’s or upper 20’s Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Snow and rain are predicted Wednesday and into the evening.

Then, it will be warm again by the weekend.

Little River is flowing at 230 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.07 on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 380 cfs. The water temperature is 52.9 degrees this morning. That number peaked at about 55 degrees yesterday.

Fishing conditions in the Smokies were perfect yesterday except for one problem. It was sunny most of the day. It was supposed to be partly cloudy or partly sunny, which to me, are the same.

In the Spring, when leaves have not developed on the trees, it is hard to find shaded areas, especially at mid-day. When sun is on the water, I’ve found trout are less likely to rise to the surface to feed. And, they seem to be spooky. You have to worry about casting your shadow on the areas you are fishing. That will put the trout down. Your fly line casts a shadow. Trout equate sudden shadows as a sign of danger, from a predator.

Trout are very actively feeding when the water temperature is in the mid-50’s. Actually, 58 degrees is the perfect temperature with the trout’s preferred range. My bet is, fishing was best late in the day yesterday, when the sun was blocked by mountain ridges.

I worked all day yesterday, so I don’t know what happened in the Smokies. I didn’t talk to any anglers. Daniel told me fishing was just fair Saturday, from the reports he heard. Like me, he expected better fishing yesterday.

I think, fishing may be good today, if the weather is reasonable. There may be strong winds late this afternoon. Fishing during thunderstorms tomorrow is probably not a good idea. Then, cold air will move in and the water temperatures will fall for a couple of days.

The streams may be cold Friday, but warming. Fishing should be much improved Saturday and Sunday. That depends on how fast the water warms after the cold spell this week. High temperatures this weekend will be in the upper 50’s to mid-60’s. Lows at night will be in the 40’s and 50’s.

Our sport is so weather dependent. During the early Spring, water temperatures bounce around. We want to see water temps in the 50’s for good fishing. Also, during the Spring, we normally have rain and lots of it. So, we watch the flow gauge. We want that number to be under 2.5 feet.

We have to choose our best days and hope for the best outcome. Yesterday was one of those days when fly fishing conditions in the Smokies were very good, except for the sun on the water. Today may be good too.

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

Byron Begley
March 19, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com