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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:03 am, the temperature outside is 51.1 degrees.

Today will be mostly cloudy and very warm. There is a very high chance for rain tonight and tomorrow. According to the National Weather Service, the front may contain strong storms lasting through tomorrow morning. Wind in the mountains may exceed 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts to 50 miles per hour. It will be warm again tomorrow with highs near 70 degrees in the low elevations.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Some rain fell in the valley last night. The Knoxville Airport recorded .19 inches while a local Townsend station reported .26”. Heavier rain may have fallen in the mountains.

Little River is flowing at 319 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.31 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 122 cfs. The water temperature is 53.4 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 472 cfs or 2.12 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 181 cfs.

Oconaluftee River at the Birdtown gauge is flowing at 531 cfs or 1.92 feet on the gauge, compared to median flow of 242 cfs. The river is stained right now.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 167 cfs compared to median flow of 51 cfs.

Little Pigeon, Oconaluftee and Cataloochee levels are still rising. Little River has peaked.

I think you may find some stained water this morning. I know the water is stained at Oconaluftee. They all should clear quickly, but you may want to go later this morning.

Stream flows in the Little River watershed appear to be low enough to wade and fish. One prong could be higher than others. Water temperatures are great in the low to mid elevations and they will likely rise further today and tomorrow.

I would start with nymphs or streamers. Try a Tellico, Prince, Pheasant Tail or Hare’s Ear nymphs. Try a Muddler Minnow or a streamer representing a sculpin. Little River and many other streams in the Park have good populations of sculpins. Pre-spawn brown trout are becoming active.

This is a good day for a Blue Wing Olive hatch. Be prepared with dries and emergers. Jack told me yesterday he saw a hatch of tiny BWO’s, about size #20, last week. Trout were feeding on them.

It will be cloudy today, which is favorable for fishing. This could be an excellent day to fish, but we don’t know how high some streams will rise. My hunch is, some will be high and others will not but by this afternoon, most will be fishable. You can check the gauge reading on some streams in an hour or so to see if they are receding, like Little River is.

It’s going to be a nice fishing day, cloudy and very warm.

I was working here at my desk yesterday and a bear walked right by my window, within a few feet of the house. When I first saw it, the bear was right at our back steps. He wandered onto our driveway. I walked outside to see where he was going. I stepped on some dry leaves on the deck next to our carport.

That bear heard the crunch and took off like a Tesla. He or she didn’t even look back at me. Within seconds, the bear was out of sight.  Black bears can run 30 miles per hour. And, they can get to that speed quickly. They say you should never run from a bear. And, why would you? If they want you, they are going to catch you. Black bear attacks on humans are extremely rare.  

More often than not, when a bear sees me or Paula, they just keep walking. Not this one. It didn’t want to have anything to do with a human. I don’t know if bear hunting season is still open, or closed temporarily. It was open a few weeks ago in our county. During the Fall, outside the Smokies, where they are protected from hunting, bears become more careful, after hunting season opens.

Humans continue to move into black bear habitat, like we did. Their future depends on our understanding of them, and how well we tolerated them. I have never felt threatened by a black bear and I can’t count how many I’ve seen in the wild, close up. I just give bears plenty of space and enjoy watching them.

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

Byron Begley
November 5, 2018   

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com