Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:44 am, the temperature is 32 degrees.

This is going to be a beautiful day. It will be sunny with a high temperature in the upper 60’s and a low tonight in the middle 40’s. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer. The high will be in the low to middle 70’s, dropping to the low 50’s overnight. Tuesday will be more of the same.

Little River is flowing at 955 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.22 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 373 cfs. The water temperature is 50.4 degrees this morning.

What you will find today again is high water in the mountains. The streams are slowly receding and that will continue through the day. Wading will be limited in most streams. It is cold this morning and water temperatures are falling.

If you go today, wait a while for the water temperatures to rise. Fish in the low elevations where the water is warmer. Be careful wading. Stand in safe water. You might do best fishing smaller streams.

Weighted nymphs will work but be ready to use dry flies and emergers. Aquatic insects are active. You will likely see many different species. Blue quills, quill gordons, stoneflies and caddis may be on the water. Trout may be feeding on the adults or emergers.

What we have are not ideal fishing conditions but this will be a good day to be on the rivers and streams in the mountains.

Fishing for stocked trout in the low elevations will improve as the water warms and the water levels drop. Most of these rivers are going to be swift today. Wading will be limited. I would stand in safe water using weighted nymphs or tandem nymph rigs. Squirmy worms and egg patterns might be good choices and you may want to cast streamers.

TVA and the Corps of Engineers will be generating or sluicing at most of their dams today. I did see pauses at Dale Hollow and Chatuge dams so check them to see if you can work with their schedule. There may be other options so visit the TVA website yourself from the links below.

We had a busy day at the shop yesterday. Ray Ball and Walter Babb were conducting free fly tying demonstrations and lots of people showed up. This was our last demonstration until next Winter. Our parking lot holds 50 cars and at times, it was almost full. Everyone had a great time.

We have been having issues getting this fishing report written and loaded. I write this report from home. Our internet has been out since Thursday. Daniel has been writing the report from his home. Well, storms blew through Friday, and as of now, he still has no power or internet at his house. I’m off today but brought my home computer to the shop where I’m writing the report now.

We have been publishing this report every day, 7 days a week, for about 15 years. We do not write in on 4 holidays during the year. I can only think of one day we failed to get this report updated for you during that time. We had a mixup on who was supposed to write it that day.

We do everything we can to be reliable for you in every way. I know you do everything possible to support Little River Outfitters and we all appreciate you very much.

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

Byron Begley
March 5, 2023

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Parking Tags are now required to park your vehicle inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 15 minutes. Tags may be purchased at Visitors Centers, including the center in Townsend. Or, they may be purchased online. You can buy a daily, weekly or annual tag. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com