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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:06 am, the temperature outside is 42.6 degrees.

Today will be clear and sunny with a high temperature in the mid-60’s. Tomorrow will be more of the same, with a high around 70 degrees. No rain is predicted today or tomorrow. Rain returns to the forecast as a 50% to 60% chance, Friday through Sunday.

Rainfall yesterday amounted to .63 inches at the Knoxville Airport and .22 inches in Townsend.

Little River is flowing at 100 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.56 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 77 cfs. The water temperature is 57.9 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 342 cfs, 1.76 feet, which compares to median flow of 159 cfs.

Oconaluftee River is flowing at 273 cfs, 1.51 feet, compared to median flow of 196 cfs. The water temperature is 54.9 degrees.

Tellico River is flowing at 93.1 cfs, .94 feet, and that compares to median flow for this date of 76 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 44.2 cfs, 2.27 feet, compared to median flow of 42 cfs. The water temperature is 51.4 degrees.

As you can see, most streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than normal due to the rainfall we got yesterday and days before. They will recede some over the next two days, then probably rise again by the weekend. Water temperatures are excellent.

Fishing is good.

I would start the day using nymphs. My choices would be Tellico, Pheasant Tail, Prince or Hare’s Ear. Other patterns will probably work fine. That is just what I would use.

Trout may be taking dry flies. If they are, any good searching pattern will work. Try an Orange Stimulator, Elk Hair Caddis or a Parachute Adams.

Lowland river fishing conditions are much better. I expect TWRA will be stocking Little River, through Townsend soon, if they have not already.  

I saw a couple of trout tailwater opportunities on the TVA website, especially if you are there early and in the right places. Refer to the TVA website from the links below to see if you can work with their generation schedules today.

The leaves are turning in the valleys. It is beautiful in the mountains right now. I’ve seen better years, but his one is tuning out much more colorful than I thought it would. I think the Fall colors will be more vivid as the week progresses.  

Fishing is good and we are going to have a couple of nice days to enjoy this week. Go if you can.

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

Byron Begley
October 23, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com