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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:38 am, the temperature is 63.1 degrees.

Thunderstorms and tornados hammered the South yesterday, affecting many states including our neighbors in Alabama and Georgia. Five people are reported dead from the storms in Alabama. We saw and heard heavy rain and thunderstorms yesterday and overnight. We got 2.11 inches of rain in Townsend during the past 24 hours. We heard large hail during one storm overnight.

It will be sunny today with a high temperature in the low 70’s falling to the upper 40’s tonight. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm is expected tomorrow with a high in the low 70’s. Showers and thunderstorms will continue Saturday night through Sunday.

Little River is flowing at 2,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 4.55 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 347 cfs. The river has peaked and is receding. The water temperature is 54.1 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing very high at 6,160 cfs or 6.29 feet on the gauge. The river just peaked and is receding.

Tellico River is flowing at 3,130 cfs, 7.04 feet, which compares to median flow of 337 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek peaked at about midnight. Flow is currently 1,030 cfs, 4.62 feet, compared to median flow of 143 cfs for this date.

Oconaluftee River has peaked and the water is receding. Flow is currently 4,190 cfs, 5.15 feet, compared to median flow of 643 cfs.

Streams in the Smokies are blown out and dangerous to wade. The only road that appears to be closed in the Park is Newfound Gap Road but there could be more reported later this morning.

Lowland Rivers are flowing too high to wade and fish. Most are likely stained.

You are probably wondering if the mountain streams will be fishable this weekend. It will take a while for the rivers to recede and more rain is expected Saturday. I don’t know for sure what fishing conditions will be like but I am doubtful about the weekend.

There are breaks in the generation schedules at several tributary dams today, including Cherokee, Douglas, Norris, South Holston and Chatuge. There may be more. Check the TVA website from the links below to see what your tailwater fishing options are today.

This may be a good tailwater fishing day, especially if you are boating. Some tailwaters could be stained by muddy tributaries pouring into the rivers.

Will and I are doing everything possible to keep the fly tying department stocked. For instance, we have three orders submitted to Wapsi. One will arrive today. Another is expected Monday. We should get the third order in about a week. I am ordering from Wapsi about every four days.

I talked to Lily Renzetti yesterday. We have been a Renzetti customer for 26 years. She and I are good friends. They are slammed like everyone else in the fly tying business. It was interesting to hear about how they are dealing with the popularity of their fly tying tools, from a manufacturing perspective. They make their products in Florida, and ship the vises and tools to their dealers direct.

I called Wapsi and talked to them yesterday about our orders. Will has ordered from some of our other suppliers.

I called Tracey at Hareline Dubbin this week. Our supplier of Hungarian Partridge feathers is out of stock. We were down to one bag on the wall. Tracey took care of us and sent 15 packs. We had just received a Hareline order that day. We will start stocking their partridge feathers too, from now on. We do have some whole skins in stock.

We should be getting a Whiting Farms order today. They are filling another order for us. The turnaround time at Whiting has been running about one month.

The popularity of squirrel dubbing has gone out the roof. The owner of Natures Spirit sent me an email talking about many things, including shaving squirrel skins. The Sales Manager at Wapsi told me on the phone they would have squirrel dubbing back to good levels in about a month. They have the skins.  The skins are being shaved and dyed. European nymphing is causing the squirrel dubbing shortage. We are totally out but not for long, I hope.

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

Byron Begley
March 26, 2021

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com