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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:40 am, the temperature outside is 54.3 degrees.

We got some light rain yesterday, .27 inches in Townsend and .25” at the Knoxville Airport. Today will be warm, with a good chance for rain. Saturday will be warm and mostly dry. Sunday will be fairly warm and wet, turning cold at night. Rain may be heavy at times.

Little River is flowing at 531 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.73 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 333 cfs. The water temperature is 52.9 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 1,240 cfs, 3.06 feet, compared to median flow for this date of 576 cfs.

Oconaluftee River is flowing at 1,460 cfs, 3.02 feet, compared to median flow of 646 cfs. The water temperature at the Birdtown gauge is 50.9 degrees.

Tellico River is flowing at 771 cfs, 2.70 feet, compared to median flow of 318 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 337 cfs, 3.34 feet, compared to median flow of 135 cfs. The water temperature is 49.4 degrees.

You will find stream flows in the Smoky Mountains to be higher than most anglers prefer. We may see some streams rise further today. Water temperatures are favorable in the lower elevations.

Fishing could be fair to good today, depending on how much rain we receive. Be careful wading. Some of these streams are swift.

Weighted nymphs will probably work best, but at times, you may see aquatic insects on the water. They may be Blue Wing Olives, Quill Gordons or Blue Quills. If you see that, and trout feeding on the bugs, switch to the appropriate dry fly that matches what you are seeing. A wet fly or emerger may work too.

I overheard one customer talking about seeing tiny insects on the water yesterday. They were probably Blue Wing Olives or midges.

Tennessee Valley Authority is churning water through the dams, trying to lower the reservoirs to create water storage capacity. They are struggling with the fact that over 10 inches of rain fell in the valley last month. That was a record.

I found an interesting and very informative article on the Knox News website on the subject. You can read it by CLICKING HERE.

According to TVA, it will take weeks to lower the lakes. Fishing conditions on our many tailwaters will not be good for a while.

I am almost finished with our new sunglasses department. All I need to do now is buy some mirrors and install them. I’ll do that this weekend. The department will be re-stocked frequently, maybe even weekly at times. Orders will be generated by our new point of sale system, to replenish sold inventory.

Walter Babb and Jack Gregory will be our featured fly tying demonstrators tomorrow between 10 am and 2 pm. These guys are awesome fly fishermen and fly tyers. Their knowledge is amazing.

Jack and I fish around here together fairly often. We have also traveled together to Florida, Yellowstone, Michigan and other states to fly fish. We have been friends for about 24 years.

Walter and I have been friends for that long too. We have fished here, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York together, and probably some other places I can’t remember right now.

I have learned so much about this sport from these guys. You will learn too, if you visit the shop tomorrow.

The event is free. All you have to do is show up and you should if you can.

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

Byron Begley
March 1, 2019  

Fly Tying Classes January, February and March 2019 Taught by Walter Babb and Brian Courtney Beginner to Advanced CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Respond to: info@littleriveroutfitters.com