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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:44 am, the temperature is 46.0 degrees.

It will be cloudy today with a high temperature in the low to middle 60’s. We have a chance for light rain today. It will be overcast. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer with a high in the middle to upper 60’s.

Little River is flowing at 176 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.93 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 282 cfs. The water temperature is 52.5 degrees and falling.

Most streams in the Smokies are flowing at or below normal. Overall, stream flows are good.

Water temperatures are falling this morning, almost like yesterday. You may want to wait a while before going fishing, until the temperatures bottom out and begin to rise. I would fish the lower elevations where the water is warmer.

Nymphs will probably work best, especially earlier today. You might enjoy top water dry fly fishing later. It’s hard to say for sure. It should be overcast today, which is beneficial.

Lowland river fishing is good where trout are stocked. Smallmouth bass fishing should improve as the water warms later today. Nymphs and streamers are the best fly choices for both species.

The turbines at Norris Dam are inactive right now according to the TVA website. They say there will be no generation at the dam until noon. Check yourself before you go. That looks like a good tailwater fishing opportunity to me. Look at the South Holston Dam schedule. You may be able to work with that one too. You can probably work with the schedule at Chatuge. Most other generation schedules did not look promising but I did not check every one. Refer to the TVA website from the links below to see what your options are.

It has been dry. There is no threat of heavy rain in the near future. They will be allowing some lakes to rise to Summer pool soon. I think we’ll see better tailwater fishing conditions for a while. I hope so.

This will be an ideal lake fishing day. It will be overcast. Winds are supposed to be light and variable. You might get wet but heavy rain is not predicted. I would work the rocky banks with streamers. My choice would be a large weighted black Wooly Bugger.

We are busy at the shop. A lot of people are fly fishing and preparing for travel. We didn’t get to travel much last year. I am talking to a lot of angers who are planning fishing trips this year, including me.

I am tying shrimp patterns to catch speckled trout, redfish, and anything else that swims in salty water.  

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

Byron Begley
April 17, 2021   

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com