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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:15 am, the temperature outside is 47.7 degrees.
It will be partly sunny today and tomorrow with a high temperature in the low to mid 70’s. Rain returns to the forecast with a lower chance Monday and a higher chance Tuesday.
Little River is flowing at 368 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.38 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 382 cfs. The water temperature is 51.3 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the mountains are flowing slightly above normal for this date.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is temporarily closed through April.
As far as I know, Cherokee National Forest is open.
Lowland rivers are flowing at or slightly above median flow. Those rivers outside the Park should be open to fishing. Trout stocked sections including Townsend, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are open to fishing. Fishing is fair for smallmouth bass and other species in the lower sections of Little River and Little Pigeon River. Flows are fairly high so wading may be limited.
Most TVA and Corps dams are generating or sluicing or both today.
Practice social distancing if you go. Additionally, Tennesseans are mandated to stay home except for essential travel. Fishing is probably not considered essential to some people.
We are working at the shop, taking phone orders to be shipped or placed outside the shop for pickup by you. We are filling many online orders too. We are practicing social distancing with each other and by not meeting customers in or outside the store.
We are also working on expanding our online store and doing other essential work to keep things running.
We all miss seeing you in the shop. Thank you so much for supporting us.
Many of our customers are tying flies at home. We can tell because a lot of folks are ordering fly tying materials and tools from us. We sold at least two and probably three Renzetti fly tying vises this week. That is unusual in April. I will order more from Renzetti this weekend, to be delivered to us next week.
You can order fly tying materials from us by calling 865-448-9459. We will pick your order and ship the items to you with Free Ground Shipping.
I saw a man, walking on the sidewalk along Highway 321 in Townsend yesterday. In his left hand he held a spinning rod. A small dog was perched on his right shoulder. The dog was looking around, taking in the scenery in our beautiful town. A man and his dog going fishing is an uplifting sight. Most fishing dogs are larger than that one.
Some friends of ours were parked near our road when I got home yesterday. They were hiking in the woods behind our home down by the creek. Their vehicle is a black Jeep Wrangler. That Jeep is always clean and shiny.
A wild turkey gobbler was standing next to the Jeep, just looking at it. I thought that was odd. I drove on to our house. Paula and I stood on our front porch and watched. The turkey had moved over to the other side of the Jeep where we could see him.
The turkey was pecking the doors on the Jeep. We could hear the noise every time he pecked from probably a hundred yards away. It was loud. That bird saw his reflection in the shiny Jeep. He was pecking at his own reflection.
Paula called our friends and told them what was going on. They walked back to the Jeep and drove off. Turkeys are mating in Tennessee. In fact, turkey hunting season opens today. When a male turkey sees another male turkey, during the mating season, they instinctively become aggressive and pick a fight. Our friends reported no damage done to the Jeep. That surprised me.
This is going to be a beautiful Saturday. If you can’t go fishing, the next best thing is standing outside looking at things you would likely never notice until now.
Please enjoy your day, stay safe, and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 4, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
