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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:40 am, the temperature outside is 47.3 degrees.
Today will be warmer, in the upper 50’s. It will be mostly cloudy. Tonight’s low will dip to the mid-40’s. Tomorrow will be a little warmer, day and night.
Very warm air will move into the area Wednesday and it will continue to be warm through the weekend. High temperatures will reach the 70’s with lows in the 40’s and 50’s through Friday. It will be somewhat cooler this weekend.
Expect rain Wednesday night and Thursday.
Little River is flowing at 722 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.99 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 346 cfs. The water temperature is 48.9 degrees this morning.
Little River and other streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park are flowing high. Wading in some areas is not advised. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, though you should still expect higher than normal flows for this time of year. Wednesday will be much better for fishing.
Water temperatures are rising and that will continue all week. Trout will be active. Aquatic insects are active. Fishing will improve and will probably be good in a day or so.
The only negative I see this week, after the water recedes, is more rain Wednesday night and Thursday.
Spring fishing is back on track. It appears, from looking at the long term weather forecast, it will be warm at least through April 9th.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to generate all day at both Norris and Cherokee dams.
Lowland river fishing for smallmouth bass may get better this week. Water temperatures in the 50’s will urge the fish to move into shallow water. The lowland rivers are all flowing high today, but, later this week, we may see smallmouth bass fishing improve.
It is time to service our boat motor, and get ready to fish the lakes for smallmouth bass. I hope to get that done next week. I have no idea what the water temperatures are on the lakes. They usually begin warming, and smallmouth get active, in April. Where we fish, smallmouth usually spawn in late April or early May.
When smallmouth bass move into shallower water, I usually do best using a weighted, black, Wooly Bugger. Later, during and after the spawn, a black or chartreuse Knucklehead works for me. That time is probably a few weeks away. I won’t know until we get out there.
Bluegill and shellcrackers will be spawning in a few weeks. I’ve always found that happens in early May.
I’m looking forward to that too.
White bass will begin their migration up the lowland rivers, from the impoundments, to spawn. That usually occurs in mid-April. Be ready with Puglisi Threadfin Shad patterns or small, white, Clouser Minnows. I tie my Puglisi Shad on #4 egg hooks. They look like tiny tarpon flies. I tie them on larger hooks too. Everything eats those, smallmouth bass, trout, bream, largemouth bass and yellow perch. I have even caught carp on them. You can learn to tie Puglisi Threadfin Shad by CLICKING HERE.
Yellow perch, which are not native to the Tennessee Valley, are here, and here to stay. Biologists think they migrated to Tennessee from the North. Some have populated lakes that were impossible to migrate to. Those fish had to have been stocked by individuals. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency did not stock them. They are considered an exotic species. But, they are here and they are fun to catch.
This has been a crazy Winter and early Spring. In the East US, March was colder than February. Now, it appears Spring is here to stay, though we’ve been surprised a few times in early April.
Get ready!
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
March 26, 2018
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |