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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:21 am, the temperature outside is 49.6 degrees.
It will be mostly sunny today with a high temperature in the high 60’s falling to the mid 40’s tonight. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer with a high in the upper 70’s. Sunday will also be sunny and it will be much warmer, in the low 80’s. Rain returns Sunday night.
Little River is flowing at 817 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.10 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 244 cfs. The water temperature is 51.3 degrees.
All streams in the mountains that have USGS gauge sites are flowing higher than normal and safe wading will be limited today.
As the streams recede and the water warms over the next three days, fishing will improve. Nymphs and dry flies will work. Some streams will still be flowing on the high side this weekend.
The lowland rivers are flowing higher than normal. Wading will be limited today. You may find areas where you can stand and fish safely. Nymphs and streamers will probably work best for trout in the stocked areas. The same holds true for smallmouth bass.
Lake fishing is fair to good. It will be windy today with gusts as high as 20 miles per hour. Streamers will work best for bass. Dragons or other nymphs will catch bluegill and shellcrackers. You may see an improvement in topwater popper fishing in the warmer lakes, especially tomorrow and Sunday. I don’t know, but some lakes could be stained.
Every dam I checked in our region this morning is generating all day and sluicing at some. South Holston is off right now but they are sluicing. Generation will begin there at 7 am.
We are planning to open our store to customers Wednesday. Customers in the store will be limited to 5.
We may start by taking appointments over the phone. We are not sure how we are going to manage this. We plan to learn as we go. We will be wearing masks. We may be asking our customers to do the same. We will still be offering curbside pickup and mail order. We will not be selling fishing licenses. They can be purchased online.
Social distancing in the store will be mandatory, as per state law and good common sense.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park will begin a phased opening on Saturday May 9th. Major roads will open first. Bathroom facilities should be open. You can read the story on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE.
Campgrounds, picnic areas and other facilities will open later. Some roads may still be closed at first.
I can’t help but be nervous about this. It will be up to us to enforce social distancing. We are not used to telling customers what to do and not do. We are accustomed to customers telling us. It will be up to us to limit the number of customers in the store. We have never done that before. We won’t be able to stand around and talk to friends like we used to.
We will be balancing our customer service between three options, filling curbside orders, processing mail orders and helping customers in the store at a six foot distance. We have learned, it takes a lot more time to process a phone order for curbside and mail order.
I will still be going into the store early to sanitize everything we touch. John coated the hand rails on the stairs with polyurethane yesterday, so I can sanitize those.
We will figure it out. We always do. Our highest priority will be safety for you and us. Our second priority will be taking care of your needs. Let’s face it, life is going to be different for a while.
I am very excited about the opportunities for you and us to fish in the Park. I know many of you are too. Fly fishing opportunities have been very limited this Spring. That is about to change. Life is about to improve. This is what many people have been waiting for.
Most schools in America are closed for the year. Summer vacations to the Smokies may begin early. With a longer tourist season possible, maybe there will be less visitors here at any given time. We will see how that plays out.
Next week is going to be interesting.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
May 1, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |