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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:24 am, the temperature outside is 38.3 degrees.
There is a low chance for showers today and a high temperature in the mid-60’s is predicted. Rain is coming tonight, with amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Showers are likely tomorrow, especially before noon. Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny with highs in the upper 60’s.
Little River is flowing at 458 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.56 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 270 cfs. The water temperature is 50 degrees this morning and still falling.
Most if not all streams in the mountains are flowing slightly above normal for this date. The Park is temporarily closed so if you live in our area, you might want to try the Cherokee National Forest.
If you go today, you may want to wait until later when the water begins to warm. Nymph rigs will work. Dry flies may also produce.
Lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal. Many are fishable though safe wading may be limited to certain areas. Nymphs and streamers are both good choices for trout, smallmouth bass and other fishes.
I do not see any wade fishing opportunities on the tailwaters today. Lake levels have been rising during the past few days. Most are higher than TVA and the Corps would like to see right now. Most lake levels have peaked and are beginning to recede.
Tennessee Valley Authority is in the process of updating their lake information pages, including generation schedules at their dams. The pages have new URL’s and I updated our list below yesterday.
I like to see the “Operating Guides” which do not show on the landing pages. You need to click the link on the page to see them. The graphs depict current lake levels, last year’s levels, and a line indicating where they would prefer the levels to be throughout the year. That line is the Operating Guide.
New charts, that are easier to read are being added. You can see what I am describing by CLICKING HERE. This is the operating guide for Normandy Lake, one of the first to have the new graph. You can see the old graph above the new one.
There are operating guides on all TVA lakes. Most you will see now are the old versions. Someone must be updating the pages with the new graphs.
Some Corps of Engineers lakes do not have operating guides. Center Hill Dam and Wolf Creek Dam are both Corps lakes that do not have them.
Brookfield Renewable Energy lakes do not have operating guides. Those dams are located on the Little Tennessee River. They are operated as “run of the river” impoundments, which usually generate depending on how much water TVA is generating, sluicing or spilling at Fontana Dam.
Lake levels are measured in feet elevation above sea level. Most lakes are raised during the late Spring for recreational activities. Then, they are lowered in the Fall, to create water storage capacity.
These graphs help us learn when the discharges at dams may become more angler friendly and allowing us to fish the tailwaters below.
I started fishing tailwaters in Tennessee in the late 70’s. We would call someone at the dam to find out when they would be generating there. Sometime in the 80’s, a phone message system kept us fairly informed. The message would read off the generation schedules on all of the lakes. I remember quickly writing down the schedules for the dams I was interested in fishing that day. Sometimes I would miss some of the information. I would call back, and listen again.
One good thing we can enjoy is better information now, thanks to the internet.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
April 19, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |