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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:38 am, the temperature is 24.6 degrees.
Rain changed to snow in the high elevations night before last. After the sun came up and the fog lifted, the mountains were beautiful. Snowfall was light but it stuck to the trees. Later yesterday, the snow melted on the mountains I could see from the shop.
It will be sunny today with a high temperature around 50 degrees, dropping to the low 20’s tonight. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer with a high around 60 and a low in the low to middle 40’s.
It will be very warm Monday through Friday. Rain will move in Monday night and continue through Friday. Forecasters believe we will get between 3 inches to over 5 inches of rain next week. That would cause flooding.
Little River is flowing at 479 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.56 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 348 cfs. The water temperature is 43.3 degrees.
Streams in the mountains have receded quickly and are currently flowing slightly higher than normal. We consider Little River to be on the high side of good at 2.5 feet on the gauge, and the river is close to that right now. Some anglers prefer higher water like we have now while others do not. The rivers will recede further today and through the weekend.
Water temperatures are chilly this morning and they will be again tomorrow morning. We will see the streams warm slightly and gradually over the next few days, improving fishing until the pending prolonged rainfall raises the water levels beginning Monday night and lasting through most of the week. My guess is, fishing will be best Monday.
If you go fishing in the Smokies, plan on using weighted nymph rigs for now.
Lowland river fishing for stocked trout will improve some over the next few days as the waters warm. Try nymphs, egg flies, squirmy worms or mop flies. You might consider streamers too. A small Wooly Bugger might work for you.
What we would like to see is water temperatures close to or warmer than 50 degrees. At that point, fishing for trout will be much better. I don’t think that will happen this weekend. Watch the USGS gauge sites that have water temperature probes. Little River, Oconaluftee River and Cataloochee Creek have temperature probes and report current water temperature readings. Cataloochee Creek’s gauge site is at a higher elevation than Little River or Oconaluftee River, so the water will be colder there. Links to those USGS gauge sites are below this report.
There will be breaks in the generation schedules at some dams today. Some pauses are short lived while others are longer. Wade fishing options will require careful planning. If you are boating, you may have more options. Visit the TVA website from the links below to hopefully squeeze in some tailwater fishing today.
This will be a pretty weekend and it is a holiday weekend. I expect to see many visitors in Townsend and in the Smokies.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
February 19, 2022
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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