If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.
Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:20 am, the temperature outside is 46.6 degrees.
It will be warm today, in the low 60’s with only a slight chance for showers this afternoon. Rain will return tonight though it is not expected to be heavy. The low temperature tonight will be in the low 50’s. Wednesday will be very warm, in the low 70’s. We have a low chance for rain Wednesday.
Little River is flowing at 401 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.48 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 361 cfs. The water temperature is 50.9 degrees.
I checked all the streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauges. Most are flowing barely above normal for this date but we still have plenty of water. West Prong of the Little Pigeon is flowing quite a bit higher than median flow, 107 cfs, compared to 40 cfs. This is a fairly new gauge so I am not sure I trust the median flow numbers yet. There is not much data history.
Fishing in the Smokies is good. I have not heard of any significant hatches lately but I spent much of yesterday working in my office and not talking to anglers. The guides have been telling me they are doing better with nymphs. That could change at any time.
Nymph rigs are certainly working well. There are bugs on the water at times. At the very least, I would have a size assortment of Parachute Adams and Elk Hair Caddis. I have always used olive, black and yellow caddis, with yellow being used during the Summer months. Olive has always been my favorite color.
Good news! The gravel section of Tremont Road is open. There were some washed out areas on the road after the February flood. The Park Service crews repaired the road, without hiring a contractor. Now, you can easily get to Lynn Camp Prong and Thunderhead Prong by vehicle.
Lowland river fishing for smallmouth bass is fair. Some lowland rivers are flowing high, limiting your wading opportunities. Use nymphs and streamers. If you want to access a lot of water, use a canoe or kayak. Guide Josh Pfeiffer has a raft that he uses at times to float clients down Little River and other lowland rivers. Spring is a good time to do that, when we have higher flows.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers are generating and in some cases sluicing at all of the dams I checked this morning. I did not see any wade fishing opportunities on the tailwaters.
I did not check my e-mail all weekend. If you tried to reach me and I did not respond, I am sorry. I will do that today.
We are busy at the shop. Anglers are fishing. We continue to sanitize everything on the front counter and the restrooms several times during the day.
CJ, thank you for the huge bottle of hand sanitizer. You are a very good and thoughtful guy.
I complete a sales report every week, including year to date and month to date data by category. Our sales are up quite a bit from last year. More importantly to me right now, our transaction counts are way up in March, 16.15% for the first two weeks compared to last year. That surprises me. March was a busy month at the shop last year too.
The guides are busy or at least they seem to be. We are not in the guiding business, though we do work with independent guides and I see them at the shop meeting their clients almost every day.
Everything appears to be normal here, so far.
Smokin Joes BBQ opened for the Spring. Other restaurants are opening after taking the Winter off. Some restaurants stay open all year. That seems to be an upward trend. I drive by the Parkway Gulf market twice a day or more often. The friendly deli staff is serving up their famous chili dogs, as usual. I don’t know what it is about those chili dogs but they are great fishing food. Their other deli sandwiches are awesome too.
Have a great day and thank you for supporting us.
Byron Begley
March 16, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |