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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:24 am, the temperature outside is 47.7 degrees.
The rain has ended temporarily. Rainfall during the past 24 hours amounted to .68 inches at the Knoxville Airport and .78 inches in Townsend.
Today will be mostly sunny and warm, with a high in the mid 60’s falling to the low 40’s tonight. Showers are likely tomorrow with a high in the mid-50’s, falling to the upper 20’s tomorrow night. We may see snow showers tomorrow night. Thursday will be partly sunny and cool, with a high in the low 40’s.
Little River is flowing at 442 cubic feet per second or 2.59 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 331 cfs. The river is rising. The water temperature is 46.8 degrees this morning.
Little Pigeon River is rising. Flow is currently 1,220 cfs, 3.00 feet, compared to median flow of 570 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is rising quickly. Flow at the Birdtown gauge is 1,360 cfs, 2.97 feet, compared to median flow of 660 cfs. The water temperature is 45.7 degrees.
Tellico River has crested at 665 cfs, 2.43 feet, compared to median flow for this date of 314 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 329 cfs, 3.32 feet, which compares to median flow of 135 cfs. The water temperature is 44.6 degrees.
Most if not all streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than median flow. Some streams may be fishable, but many are still rising. Be careful wading if you go. Water temperatures are fairly warm.
My advice is, start with nymph rigs. Fish the lower elevations where the water is warmer. Watch for aquatic insect activity on the surface. It is possible trout may be rising to feed on adults or emergers. There are adult caddis, midges, quill gordons, blue quills, blue wing olives and stoneflies active at times.
This may not be a good fishing day because of high water in some streams and colder water in the high elevations. But, it could be a fair to good fishing day due to warmer water in the lower elevations. Everything depends on how high the streams become today, or how much they recede.
TVA and the Corps are generating at all the dams I checked this morning. They are sluicing and spilling at some dams. I did not see any good trout tailwater fishing opportunities today. Though the lake levels are higher than the agencies prefer, what we have now is much better than what we experienced last year. If we do not get significant rainfall in the near future, we should be fishing on the tailwaters earlier than we did last year. Last year at this time, the lake levels were much higher than they are now in most cases.
A new Smith Optics floor model display arrived yesterday. Daniel, Bill and I assembled it. We also got some new Smith sunglasses, with more to come. I will have the sunglasses displayed today or tomorrow.
Mountain stream anglers should take a look at the models with Low Light Ignitor lenses. The lenses are made from glass, they are polarized and the lens color is yellow. The Guides Choice frame with the Low Light Ignitor lenses sell for $229. These sunglasses are awesome!
Our best selling sunglasses to be used in the Smokies have yellow or amber lenses, that are ideal for use on our shaded streams.
Copper and brown lenses sell well too. We do not sell many gray lens sunglasses, though they are ideal for ocean, bay and lake use in bright sun. I only use brown or copper lenses on the lakes and when saltwater fishing.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
February 25, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
