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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:26 am, the temperature outside is 24.4 degrees.
Warmer air will move into the Tennessee Valley. Today and tomorrow will be sunny to partly sunny, with a high temperature in the 50’s both days, dropping to the 30’s at night. This is going to be a pleasant weekend for a change. Rain is back in the forecast Monday through Wednesday.
Little River is flowing at 368 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.44 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 368 cfs. The water temperature is 39.9 degrees this morning.
I have been writing this fishing report daily for many years. It has been seldom, if at all, that I have seen the water level in a river at exactly median flow. But, that is what we have right now in Little River. That was not a typo.
Little Pigeon River is flowing at 1,090 cfs, 2.86 feet on the gauge, compared to median flow of 697 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 906 cfs, 2.50 feet, compared to median flow of 631 cfs. The water temperature is 39.9 degrees.
Tellico River is flowing at 623 cfs, 2.34 feet, compared to median flow of 357 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 202 cfs, 2.95 feet, compared to median flow of 138 cfs. The water temperature is 36.1 degrees.
As you can see, most streams that have USGS gauges are flowing above median flow except Little River. I would choose Little River for my fishing day.
The water is cold, to the point where trout feeding activity is slower. Hopefully, the streams will warm today. I think they will. Remember, there is snow in the mountains. That will melt and could delay warming of the water. Predicting the water temperatures would only be a wild guess at this point.
Fishing may not be great, but it should improve today and tomorrow. Fish the lower elevations where the water is warmer.
Nymph rigs will work. Aquatic insects have been active, including blue wing olives, quill gordons, blue quills, midges, stoneflies and caddis. You may not see trout feeding on the surface, but you could, especially later today. I would wait a while before going, to give the streams a chance to warm some.
TVA and the Corps of Engineers continue to move vast amounts of water through the dams where our trout tailwaters flow below. I didn’t see any tailwater fishing opportunities in East Tennessee and other areas nearby today. They need to get the lake levels down and the sooner that happens, the happier many of us will be.
Congratulations to Shelley Hammonds. Read her story on the WBIR website by CLICKING HERE. Shelley has been promoted to the rank of Major, and is now in charge of law enforcement in our region. Her husband John is a fisheries biologist at TWRA and oversees the lakes in our region. Though I have met Shelley, I know John well.
John began his career while he was in graduate school, at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He works for Bart Carter, the TWRA head of fisheries for our region. Bart started his career at GSMNP. Bart and I spent a lot of time together, over 25 years ago, when I was almost a full time volunteer with the fisheries crew. That was before I got into the fly fishing business.
Remember the bear that had a plastic container stuck over his head? The bear was a victim of dumpster diving. He was in the news often. He could not eat and probably had a hard time drinking water. Nobody could catch him. Shelley finally did, by sedating the bear with a dart to remove the plastic from his head, and saving his life.
Visit the shop today to learn some incredible Euro Nymph Fishing and tying skills. John Chambers and Mark Longmire will be conducting free fly tying demonstrations while talking to you about Euro nymphing.
Many of you know John. He works part time at the shop and teaches our Euro Nymphing classes. Mark is one of the owners of Syndicate, a fly rod manufacturing company based in Knoxville. His company makes some wonderful Euro Nymphing rods. Paula and I each have one.
They will begin at 10 and continue until 2 pm. This event is free. All you have to do is show up.
Paula and I came home yesterday. We spent two weeks in Sea Pines, on the tip of Hilton Head, South Carolina. I moved my home office there and worked a lot. I wrote the fishing report from there. We rode our bicycles almost every day we were there. We had a great time but it is very good to be home. I have a pile of work to do at the shop and I can’t wait to get started today.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
February 22, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
