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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:26 am, the temperature outside is 39.9 degrees.
We have a 40% chance for showers today and a high temperature in the low 50’s. The chance for rain continues through Saturday night. Expect a high in the upper 40’s Saturday. Sunday will be sunny with a high in the low 50’s, dropping to the upper 30’s at night.
Little River is flowing at 354 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.41 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 282 cfs. The water temperature is 47.7 degrees this morning.
Little Pigeon River is flowing at 663 cfs, 2.30 feet, which compares to median flow for this date of 577 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 642 cfs, 2.16 feet, compared to median flow of 549 cfs. The water temperature is 45.3 degrees at the Birdtown gauge.
Tellico River is flowing at 378 cfs, 1.78 feet, compared to median flow of 316 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 156 cfs, 2.76 feet, which compares to median flow of 118 cfs for this date. The water temperature is 42.8 degrees this morning.
Stream flows have receded to near normal in the Smokies. Water temperatures are warming. Fishing is improving.
Fishing will be best in the lower elevations where the water is warmer. Nymphs or streamers will be good choices.
You could see aquatic insect activity and there is a possibility trout may be feeding on them. I would expect that chance to be low but you never know. What you will most likely see are blue wing olives and midges. Small black stoneflies may also be active as well as other insects.
Keep an eye on the water levels next week beginning Sunday. If the stream levels remain close to normal, fishing may be good. We will see water temperatures rise. High air temperatures near 60 degrees to near 70 degrees are expected Sunday through Thursday. Low temperatures some nights will likely be in the 50’s.
Temperatures will remain warm through February 14th, if the long term forecast holds true. Low temperatures will be much higher than normal through the period. When water temperatures rise into the 50’s, trout and aquatic insects will be active. We may enjoy an early Spring again this year.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers are cutting back the flows at some dams in East Tennessee. I noticed the generators at Cherokee Dam and South Holston Dam will be idle at times today. Hopefully you will have fly fishing opportunities on some of our tailwaters soon, and maybe as early as today. Click on the links below to the TVA website and your favorite rivers, to see if you can work with the generation schedules this weekend.
So far, I am optimistic that Spring fishing is in our near future. If we do not get prolonged heavy rain, like we had last Winter, the tailwaters will be fishable more often.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 31, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
