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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:39 am, the temperature outside is 32.9 degrees.

It will be cold today through Wednesday night. High temperatures will be in the upper 30’s, with lows dipping into the teens to low 20’s. There is a chance for snow showers in the higher elevations early this morning. No rain or snow is predicted through Thursday.

US Highway 441, (Newfound Gap Road) is closed from Gatlinburg to Cherokee due to weather.

Yesterday’s rain raised the streams in and outside the Park. 1.53 inches fell yesterday at the Knoxville Airport. 1.2 inches was reported from a personal weather station near our home just outside Townsend.

Little River is flowing at 867 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.20 feet on the gauge. The river peaked just before midnight. Median flow for this date is 338 cfs. The water temperature is 47.5 degrees and falling.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 3,610 cfs, 4.8 feet on the gauge, compared to median flow of 658 cfs.

Oconaluftee River is flowing at 1,450 cfs, 3.01 feet, which compares to median flow of 628 cfs. The water temperature is 46.58 degrees and falling.

Tellico River is flowing at 1,270 cfs, 3.8 feet, compared to median flow of 323 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 310 cfs or 3.27 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 146 cfs. The water temperature is 44.6 degrees and falling.

The streams are flowing too high to safely wade in most areas of the Park. This is not a good day to go.

The water temperatures are falling quickly. The streams will be cold through at least Wednesday. Fishing will be slow, until later this week. More rain is in the forecast for later this week.

The lake levels are very high. Some are higher than Summer pool. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is trying to draw down the reservoirs to create storage capacity, without flooding towns and areas downstream. TVA is generating, sluicing or spilling at the tributary dams. They are spilling at Norris Dam and sluicing at Cherokee and Douglas Dams. They are also spilling at Melton Hill, Fort Loudoun and Watts Bar.

Many areas in our county and the Greater Knoxville Area are still flooded. This February was the wettest on record. Heavy rain continued into early March. Read the story about this on the Knox News website by CLICKING HERE. Most people do not have flood insurance. I read in an article recently, only 1,000 homes in Knoxville are covered by flood insurance.

Catastrophic storms and tornados devastated our neighbors to the south in Alabama yesterday.  So far, 23 people have died in these storms. We will learn more today. Our neighbors in Georgia and other states may have been affected. We have many friends and customers there. I am so sorry. My prayers go out to you.

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

Byron Begley
March 4, 2019

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

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