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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:06 am, the temperature outside is 38 degrees.
It will be sunny and warm today with a high in the low 60’s falling to the upper 40’s tonight. Rain will move into the area late tonight and linger through Wednesday. Rainfall is predicted to be about .75 inches during the period. It will continue to be warm through Wednesday. Then, it will be cold again.
Little River is flowing at 637 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.95 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 357 cfs. the water temperature is approximately 47 degrees this morning.
Little Pigeon River is flowing at 1,310 cfs or 3.09 feet at the Sevierville gauge. Median flow for this date is 772 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 1,590 cfs, 3.18 feet, compared to median flow of 577 cfs. the water temperature is 44.8 degrees this morning.
Tellico River is flowing at 874 cfs, 2.88 feet, compared to median flow of 398 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 385 cfs, 3.46 feet, which compares to median flow of 143 cfs. The water temperature is 42.4 degrees.
Streams in the Smokies are receding very slowly. The ground is saturated, causing the slow return of flows to normal. They will continue to recede today and warm. The streams may rise some tomorrow, though no significant rain is predicted.
Rivers and streams in some watersheds are flowing comparatively higher than normal, than others. Little River has receded to within a few inches of what we consider the high side of good, at 2.5 feet.
If you go, pick your spots and rivers and be careful wading as the water is swift in many streams and areas of other streams. I would stand in a safe place and high stick nymph rigs. Be on the lookout for hatches of blue wing olives and possibly other aquatic insects.
There are streams that run off faster than others. You could seek out those streams today. We send customers to Lynn Camp Prong, Laurel Creek and Anthony Creek when the water is high. But, you can also find fishable areas on other rivers too, where wading is safe. Otherwise, stay near the bank and fish the larger streams. These are not ideal conditions, but I know you are anxious to go fishing, and this is a holiday, so some of you are not working today.
Water temperatures are not ideal this morning, but they will improve today. Trout may be actively feeding or somewhat actively feeding. Fish the lower elevations where the water is warmer.
I do not see fly fishing opportunities on any of our trout tailwaters today. TVA and the Corps are flushing a lot of water through the tributary dams by generating and sluicing, and in some cases spilling, to lower the lakes.
I have been taking a course, partially online, to learn to use Adobe InDesign. This software is made for professionals to design print advertising pieces, like brochures, catalogs and graphics for signs. I use other Adobe software every day, mostly Dreamweaver for web page design and Photoshop.
The learning process is going very slowly. InDesign is much more complicated than older desktop publishing software I have used before. I can tell by looking at the bookmark in my textbook, “I’ve got a long way to go”. Maybe the problem is, my age. I will learn it. I never give up.
Yesterday I figured out how to use Elastic. Elastic is wholesale ordering software, used by a handful of our suppliers. Daniel and Dave use Elastic to order from Orvis and I think Simms. I need to use the software to order from Smith Optics. I just played with it yesterday and found it to be fairly easy to use. With Elastic, we can check to see if everything we are ordering is in stock. If something is not, I can eliminate the item or find a substitute.
I even placed an order for two pair of Smith sunglasses yesterday just for fun. Everything seemed to work fine. I hope 200 pair of the same model don’t show up at the shop later this week. The sunglasses I ordered sell for $229 each.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
February 17, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
