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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:26 am, the temperature outside is 30.7 degrees.
After the frost melts this morning, we will enjoy a beautiful sunny Spring day with a high temperature in the low 60’s. The temperature will dip into the 30’s again tonight. Friday will be sunny and warmer, in the low 70’s. Showers are likely Saturday morning, then it will clear. The high will be in the mid-60’s. Showers are predicted Sunday.
Little River is flowing at 624 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.84 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 283 cfs. The water temperature is 46.8 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the mountains are receding slowly at this point. Current flows are about double the normal for this date. They will continue to recede today and tomorrow, reaching closer to normal by Friday afternoon. Some streams may be fishable before then.
The Park is temporarily closed. If you are planning to fish a mountain stream, you may want to try the Cherokee National Forest, or other national forests. Be careful wading. The streams are still swift. I would stand in safe water and high stick nymphs. I would wait until later today to go, when the water is warmer. Stream temperatures are falling in all streams this morning.
Lowland rivers are still flowing high and they are swift. Safe wading is going to be limited today.
I checked several dam generation schedules and I did not see any wade fishing opportunities on the tailwaters in our area. Lake levels rose quickly earlier this week due to the heavy rain and flooding conditions.
Fishing conditions are not what we would hope for today but there will be constant improvement as the waters recede.
I am off today, which is rare. That is why I started working on this fishing report at 6:30, an hour later than usual. I usually go to the shop each morning at 7:45 am, to sanitize everything we touch. That takes 45 minutes. Daniel and Dennis will do that today.
I am getting used to the smell of chlorine, and everyone else seems to have adapted to the smell too.
We are all healthy and enjoying work at the shop. There are always three or four of us there every day. We changed our operating hours to the old schedule, Sunday through Thursday, 9 am to 5 pm and Friday and Saturday, 9 am to 6 pm. We are there waiting for your phone calls for shipping and curbside pickup. A lot of people are using our online store too. Business is pretty good. The fly tying department is doing very well. I ordered from all but one of our suppliers yesterday.
We had a fairly large tree fall over our road earlier this week in an area where we do not drive a vehicle to get out of here. Paula and I will cut it up and move the logs and branches to the burn pile. We are also going to cut more undesirable trees along the road today.
We tow a wagon behind the Gator. The heavy logs are cut into short lengths and hauled in the bed of the gator. We pile the branches on the wagon and tie them down. The burn pile is about 1/8th of a mile away from where we will be working today. If you live where we live, a Gator is essential. We could not live without the wagon either.
Believe it or not, we both enjoy using chain saws. They offer a sense of almost instant gratification. It is amazing what two people can get done with a couple of chain saws. The property is looking much better while also making it more “fire wise”.
We use a gas powered limb saw too. It is a long pole with an engine on one end, and a chain on the other. That saw reaches up about ten feet to cut dead limbs off of trees. I had one fall and hit me in the head two weeks ago. I was wearing my helmet and face shield, so no harm was done.
I will say that catching a fish on a fly is more fun than using chain saws. I’m sure you agree.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 16, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |