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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:18 am, the temperature outside is 51.1 degrees.
Warmer air has moved into the Smoky Mountains. We have a low chance for showers this morning but clearing and dry conditions are predicted later. Expect a high temperature today above 70 degrees, warming to the low to mid-80’s for the remainder of the week. Lows at night will drop to the 50’s to the low 60’s. Showers may return Sunday.
Little River is flowing at 287 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.19 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 215 cfs. The water temperature is 50.7 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the Smokies have receded to a good fishing level, though they are still flowing higher than normal. Water temperatures are rising and that will continue at least through early next week. Fishing is improving every day.
Nymphs and dry flies will produce well for you this week. Nymph choices include Tellico, Hare’s Ear, Prince, Pheasant Tail and possibly Green Weenie patterns. Most reasonable dry flies will work. Try any Yellow Sally Stonefly, Yellow Neversink Caddis, Yellow Stimulator, Elk Hair Caddis or light colored mayfly patterns. As the waters recede, stealth becomes essential to your success. Dress to blend with the forest. Get a good drift. As this week progresses, trout will become more active. Fishing will be good today and it will get better later this week.
Lowland river fishing for trout and smallmouth bass is improving mostly because the stream levels are lower and water temperatures are rising. Nymphs and streamers will produce for trout and smallmouth bass. Top water fishing is a possibility. We should see better popper and foam floating fly fishing in these rivers later this week.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers are definitely cutting back the flows at some dams, creating more boating and possible wade fishing opportunities on the area tailwaters. Lake levels are at or getting close to the Operating Guide, or preferred levels. With no significant rain in the forecast, we will see lake levels fall further, creating better tailwater fishing conditions in the near future. Check your favorite tailwater from the links below, to see if and when you can work with the generation schedules.
Shallow water lake fishing will improve as the surface temperatures rise this week. Streamers will definitely work. Poppers and foam floating flies are also a possibility now, and especially over the next few days.
According to the Park Service, and what we are hearing, the Park is busy with visitors and traffic created by them. Park staff is short-handed right now, because volunteers and seasonal employees are not working yet. We are anxiously awaiting the opening of secondary roads in Phase 2 of the reopening plan. That will give us more access to parking and streams to fish. Hopefully that will occur soon. I read an article on the WBIR website on the subject. You can read it by CLICKING HERE.
We are busy at the shop, busier than I would have thought. I hope that continues. Since we are not selling fishing licenses, that gives us more time to help you in other ways. Selling fishing licenses is very time consuming and not profitable. Since we are limiting the number of customers in the shop, we had to stop selling licenses. You can easily buy fishing licenses online.
We are also not holding classes. We don’t see any way to do that while social distancing and keeping the number of people in our store to the maximum we set, as required.
Our mail order business is very good. Mail ordering has grown in all businesses in America. We used to have one UPS delivery person in Townsend, Joey. Now we have two, Joey and Phil. Amanda, who delivers to us from FedX is covered up too. We think this trend will continue and we are preparing for the future by increasing our online shopping presence and beefing up our shipping department.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
May 13, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |