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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:41 am, the temperature outside is 50.5 degrees.

This has been a wet week. We have had more rain than was predicted. Townsend got .48” of rain yesterday. The Knoxville Airport reported less, .23”.

It seems the rain is over for a while. There is a slight chance some days, but for the most part, it will be warm and dry this weekend, and the same through next weekend. Expect highs in the 70’s to low 80’s through the next 7 days, except Sunday, with a predicted high in the low 60’s.

The streams are slowly receding. Little River is flowing at 902 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.21 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 268 cfs. The water temperature is 52 degrees this morning.

The ground is saturated. The flows will not fall rapidly. Tomorrow will be much better than today. Later today will be better than it is now.

You will find many species of aquatic insects on the water, even at the higher than normal flows. Just about everything you can think of is hatching. Most are lighter colored mayflies, caddis and stoneflies. You will see Light Hendricksons, Light Cahills or Sulphurs, March Browns, Blue Wing Olives, Yellow Sally Stoneflies, lots of caddis and other aquatic and terrestrial insects on the water. You could be lucky enough to catch the Green Drake hatch on Abrams Creek. This is the time of year, when trout have plenty to eat.

The trout are hungry. The water temperature is well within their preferred range.

Today, the water is fairly high. The current is strong in some areas of the streams. When the water falls a few inches, it will be different. Watch for 2.5 feet on the Townsend USGS Gauge. That is the high side of good. I don’t know if the river will fall to that number today. I think it will tomorrow.

I met up with Jack at the shop yesterday. He was going fishing. I told him “There is a lot of water”. His reply was, “Fish like water”. He fished Tuesday. I asked him what bugs he saw on the water. He told me, “Everything”. He even saw a few Green Drakes on Little River. That is rare, in the Park. We see them in the lower reaches of the river this time of year.

He went on to say, when the rain stopped for a while, the bugs started popping off the water. When it rained, they stopped. I don’t know why that happens, but it does.

The Yellow Sally Stoneflies are present, but not in big numbers. That will change too, soon.

We have some great fly fishing in the Smoky Mountains, coming our way, over the next few days.

The trout tailwaters are fishing well. TVA is generating off and on at both Norris and Cherokee Dams. There have been some fairly long times of no generation, during the day. Check the TVA website from the links below.

Pre-spawn smallmouth bass are active in the tailwaters. They are not behaving like they will in a few weeks, but, some big ones have been caught. The water is warm enough in the lowland rivers, for fair smallie pre-spawn fishing.

If you go fishing in the Park today, you should be prepared to fish with nymphs or wet flies if you don’t see bugs on the water. When the bugs are present, pick a dry fly that mimics one of the species you see the most of. I think a Parachute Light Cahill or a March Brown will work best. There are many other dry flies that may work as well or even better. Try a #16 Yellow Neversink Caddis. It looks like a Yellow Sally to the trout. Though there are not many Yellow Sallies on the water, that fly still may work.

You might want to choose smaller streams in the low to mid-elevations. East Prong of Little River above Elkmont might be a good choice. Try Lynn Camp Prong or Fish Camp Prong. Laurel Creek should be a good bet today. Thunderhead Prong or the West Prong of Little River may be fair to good today.

Many anglers are here for their Spring fly fishing vacation. This high water has made it tough. We had a lot of stained streams at times this week. I saw Little River several times yesterday. It was flowing high and strong, but the water has cleared.

I will be off for two weeks starting tomorrow. Paula and I plan to fish almost every day. Daniel will be writing the fishing report. My home office looks like a fly shop right now, a disorganized fly shop.

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

Byron Begley
April 27, 2018  

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com