IMPORTANT NOTICE: Beginning today, the fishing report will be written only on Fridays. We have been writing these fishing reports every day for about 15 years. I am trying to cut back my work week to more normal hours. I will be 73 years old in July and I work 6 days per week, usually nine or more hours per day. I do it because I love it. Little River Outfitters has been a big part of my life for about 29 years. I would not want to have it any other way.

Transitioning from a daily fishing report to a weekly fishing report will be interesting and a learning experience for me. Daniel and I will be alternating writing this report.

Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:46 am, the temperature in Townsend is 49 degrees.

It will be mostly cloudy today with a slight chance for showers and a high temperature in the low 70’s. The low tonight will fall to the upper 50’s.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a high in the upper 70’s, dropping to the middle 50’s overnight.

Sunday will be sunny and warm with a high in the middle 80’s and a low in the middle 50’s overnight.

It will continue to be warm next week with showers and thunderstorms in the forecast on some days.

Little River is flowing at 156 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.87 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 250 cfs. The water temperature is 55.8 degrees this morning.

All streams that have USGS gauge sites are flowing lower than normal. Water temperatures are good at most elevations but chilly at the highest elevations.

Today and tomorrow will be very good fishing days due to the expected cloud cover.

The streams are receding to lower levels which requires a careful approach to the trout. Dress to blend with the forest to help avoid being seen by the fish. Place you fly so it will move through the broken choppy water where the trout are hiding. You may want to downsize to finer tippet if fishing is slow. You may need to use smaller flies. You certainly need to get a good drift.

Trout will take dry flies, nymphs or wet flies.

Fishing for stocked trout in the low elevation rivers is good. Trout are taking nymphs, egg patterns, squirmy worms, midge pupa and small streamers.

Fishing for smallmouth bass in the lowland rivers is also good. Use nymphs or streamers but give poppers or foam floating flies a try too.

There will be periods of no generation at most dams that have wadable tailwaters below. The only exception I noticed was Wolf Creek Dam in Kentucky but there may be others. If you intend to fish on a tailwater today you have many options. Check the TVA website from the links below to plan your tailwater fishing day.

Paula and I were in the kitchen here at home early yesterday evening when I noticed a bear right outside the window, maybe 30 feet from our house. We watched the bear slowly amble into the forest and disappear. He stopped a few times and looked back toward us.

This was, no doubt, the largest black bear either of us have ever seen and we have seen many. The animal was fat, not what you would expect to see this early in the year following hibernation. He was obviously a bear that has found a reliable source of food provided intentionally or unintentionally by humans. If that is the case, this bear could also be dangerous, having little to no fear of humans.

The bear will be easily identifiable in the future. He had a large scar on his backside, the could have been the result of being hit by a car or truck. We will be watching out for this guy.

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

Byron Begley
April 26, 2024

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Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com