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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:43 am, the temperature is 36.5 degrees.

Expect plenty of sunshine for the first weekend of Spring. High temperatures will be in the 60’s today and tomorrow with lows falling to the middle 30’s at night. Monday will be warmer, in the upper 60’s during the day and falling to the middle 40’s at night.

Little River is flowing at 1,110 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.45 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 361 cfs. The water temperature is 47.5 degrees and falling this morning.

Many rivers and streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than normal, with some flowing much higher. Some streams on the east side of the Smokies are flowing lower, but still higher than normal. We consider a gauge reading of 2.5 feet to be on the high side of good on Little River. It is flowing about a foot higher than that.

The rivers are swift. Be careful wading. Try to find a stream with lower flows, stand in safe water and use weighted nymph rigs. In most cases, water temperatures have fallen below the trout’s preferred range. These are not ideal fishing conditions.

Lowland rivers are flowing high. I saw Little River several times yesterday. I didn’t see any safe wading opportunities. The rivers have receded some and they will continue to fall.

You will find breaks in the generation schedules at some dams today. Check the TVA website from the links below to see what is available on your favorite tailwater. If you are boating, there will be more options.

We are busy at the shop. The streams were flowing so high yesterday, there were probably no customers going fishing in the Smokies. Customers are preparing for Spring fishing though. I noticed a shipment of Scott fly rods arrived. Come by and check them out. We also received a large shipment of Korkers wading boots. The store is very well stocked and ready for you.

I spent yesterday adding new fly tying materials to the online store. Will and I will be working on that again today. This will be an ongoing process, stepped up through the Spring and Summer. We are adding new items that we have not offered before in the store as well.

One material I added to our orders is squirrel dubbing in several colors. That stuff has been impossible to get. I called TL, the sales manager at Wapsi this week to find out why. He told me, “Squirrel Dubbing is the hot button around here”. It has become very popular, especially for European nymphing anglers. They just received a big supply of squirrel skins, but the hair has to be removed and dyed. He thinks all colors will be available in about a month.

Though we will be ordering squirrel dubbing every week, we won’t get what we order for a while. Our inventory management system will order the dubbing automatically, and it is set to order plenty. As it becomes available, squirrel dubbing will trickle in.

Enjoy the first weekend of Spring and it is going to be a beautiful one.

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

Byron Begley
March 20, 2021

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com