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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:23 am, the temperature outside is 31.6 degrees.
We are under a frost advisory this morning. It will be sunny today with a high temperature in the mid-60’s dropping to the high 40’s tonight. Easter Sunday will be warm, in the upper 60’s, with showers and thunderstorms arriving later in the morning. The rain will last through Monday morning. Some storms may produce heavy rainfall and damaging winds Sunday evening. Hail is possible. Rainfall amounts between one inch and three inches are possible through the period.
Little River is flowing at 222 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.01 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 328 cfs. The water temperature is 49.5 degrees and falling.
Fishing in the mountains may be only fair early today due to falling water temperatures. Fishing may improve later today. The Park is temporarily closed. If you are looking for freestone stream fishing for trout in the mountains, try the Cherokee National Forest or other national forests.
Rain, wind and thunderstorms will pose a threat for anglers tomorrow. I would stay out of the forest and off the lakes tomorrow.
Lowland river fishing is probably fair today and may improve later as the water warms. Streamers and nymphs will be your best options.
TVA is cutting back their discharges at some dams today. I saw a couple of possible wade fishing opportunities on some tailwaters during short breaks. Check the TVA website from the links below to see if you can work with their schedules, either by wading or boating.
Lake fishing may be good today. If you have a boat, canoe or kayak, you could do well. Streamers would be my choice for bass. Rubber Legged Dragons fished fairly deep may work for panfish and bass.
Businesses in Townsend are having a tough time. It started in January, when Cades Cove closed for two months for a repair on the Bote Mountain Tunnel. The Cove opened in early March, then the Park closed completely. From mid-March until now, any businesses related to tourism have been extremely slow, us included.
I saw a WBIR car in at the Best Western late yesterday. It was Tim Metheny, a reporter I have known for many years. He was here, filming a story about Townsend. You can see it on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE. He interviewed Ron, our mayor. Ron has been and continues to be an essential long-time public servant with our best interests in his heart.
The visitation numbers used in the show depicted business in the first quarter of this year, which is not good. I am certain the numbers from March 15th through yesterday, are much worse.
I feel awful every time I drive through town and see empty parking lots. Me and all of the people working in Townsend are looking forward to better times and those times will come.
Our business has been consistently down a little over 60% from last year since March 15th. We were up a little over 10% from January through March 14th, compared to the same period last year.
We have mail order to help us through this period. We are expanding our online store right now. Additionally we are offering curb side pickup. Most of the customers using that service live in the counties nearby or they live in our county. We are all sincerely grateful for your continued support. Thanks to you, we can continue to work.
We are ordering merchandise. Most of our supply chains are open and anxious to fill our needs.
There are three to four of us working at the shop every day, seven days a week, from 9 am until 4 pm. We are practicing social distancing and disinfecting our work areas. We have no face to face contact with customers or anyone else.
We will be closed tomorrow, Easter Sunday. I will not be writing a fishing report tomorrow morning.
When this is over, there will be a lot of people fishing, hiking, enjoying wildlife and loving the beautiful scenery we are blessed to have here. There will be a lot of people visiting the mountains again, more than ever before.
They will be staying in motels, cabins and lodges They will be camping. They will be eating at our restaurants and shopping in our stores. Our visitors will again be most appreciative of the friendly and helpful people who live and work here.
Fly fishing has lured me to many small towns and rural areas across America. I have never found a friendlier place than Townsend, Tennessee and I am honored to live here with these fine people.
We are all looking forward to that day.
Be safe and thank you for being here with us. Have a great Easter weekend.
Byron Begley
April 11, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
