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 5:28 am, the temperature outside is 54.0 degrees.
It has been raining since 2:39 am. So far, the rainfall total is .39” and it is still raining. I am hearing thunder.
Rain will continue today. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch are possible. The high temperature will be around 60 degrees falling to the upper 40’s tonight. Showers are predicted tomorrow with thunderstorms possible late in the afternoon. The rain will continue through early Wednesday. A total of 1 to 2 inches is expected through the period.
Little River is flowing at 513 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.69 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 384 cfs. The river is rising slowly right now. The water temperature is 53.4 degrees.
Most streams in the park are flowing higher than normal. Many have begun to rise. The weather radar indicates a band of heavy rain is moving in our direction.
My best guess is, fishing conditions will worsen as streams rise. If we get another one to two inches in the Smokies, which seems likely, the streams will be flowing too high to safely wade. They will also be temporarily stained.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers are generating at most dams today. I did see some breaks in the schedules on the TVA website at Douglas and South Holston Dams today. You might check the TVA website and find fishing opportunities on some tailwaters.
Lowland Rivers are flowing fairly high and some may be stained.
All campgrounds, picnic areas and rest rooms have been closed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The gravel section of Tremont Road is open. You may fish, hike and drive in the Park.
We are still operating our curbside service at the Shop. Please call us at 865-448-9459 and we will fill your orders and deliver them to your vehicle. We have a credit card terminal set up on our front porch for your use.
Our mail order business is very busy. Purchase online or call us to have your gear shipped. We do not charge for ground shipping.
We are still fairly busy. Last week, our sales were down 54% compared to the same week last year. Last year we had a very busy third week of March.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered Tennessee restaurants to serve customers using curbside pickup, takeout or delivery only as of midnight last night. A group of over 2,000 physicians signed a petition asking him to issue a ‘shelter in place’ order for the entire state. If that occurs, all non-essential businesses in Tennessee would close. Most Tennessee residents could be required to stay at home.
I am writing the fishing report every morning, taking a shower, then going to the shop to sanitize our work areas and rest rooms at 7:30 am before everyone arrives. Our team members are the only people in our building. So far, we have had no more than four of us working at one time. More often, it has been three.
We are not ordering much new merchandise temporarily, until we figure out what is selling now. I’m sure, without looking at the data, we are selling essential items for the most part, fly tying materials, flies, leaders, tippet, boxes and other small things anglers need to go fishing.
Our store was stocked well in early March. We were ready for a big Spring. We do have some Fishpond fly boxes arriving hopefully today. I think Dave ordered some flies yesterday. I plan to order fly tying materials after we hear what the Governor plans to do. Most of our materials and tools come from Arkansas, Oregon, Colorado and Florida. I have not heard of any supply chain interruptions from those states.
I was amazed yesterday, at how many people were driving and biking through town. I have heard the campgrounds are busy. With the Park shutting down theirs, private campgrounds are the only option.
We are all hanging in there at the shop doing everything we can to keep the business open and serving you.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
March 23, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
