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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:43 am, the temperature is 26.4 degrees.

It will by sunny and a little warmer today with a high in the middle 50’s falling to the upper 20’s again tonight. Warmer air will move into the region tomorrow with more sunshine and a high in the low 60’s. It will be much warmer with only a slight chance for rain Tuesday through Friday. Expect highs in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. Lows at night will be in the 50’s, Wednesday through Friday.

Little River is flowing at 406 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.46 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 390 cfs. The water temperature is 42.3 degrees this morning.

Streams in the Smokies have receded to near normal. It was cold last night and water temperatures have plunged. After tonight, we will enjoy warm days and nights. The streams will warm this week. Fishing will improve every day. The chance for rain is very low until next weekend.

Aquatic insects are hatching in the mountains. You will see Quill Gordons, Blue Quills and other Spring insects on the water at times. The insect activity will be sporadic. Trout will be sluggish until the water warms. We have one more cold night, then everything will change.

If you go today, wait a while until the water warms. Weighted nymph rigs will probably work best today. Later this week, be prepared for anything. Trout may be taking dry flies, wet flies or nymphs.

Flows in the lowland rivers exiting the mountains are getting back to normal. Fishing will be good later this week where trout are stocked. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is scheduled to stock trout in Little River later this week. You can read TWRA’s stocking schedule by CLICKING HERE. The dates you see are Sundays, and stocking will be typically five days or less after that date.

Smallmouth bass fishing may improve this week as the lowland rivers warm. I would not count on that but it may happen.

Tailwater trout fishing opportunities are limited today. In fact, every generation schedule I clicked on indicate they will be churning the turbines all day and night. Search further an you may find something of interest.

Sunshine and the fact that Spring fishing is about to begin brought out the customers yesterday. We were very busy at the shop. Everyone is getting ready for what is coming.    

The long term weather forecast indicates there will be Spring-like warm days and nights through the third week of March. I think it is safe to say, “Winter is over”.

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

Byron Begley
March 7, 2021

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com