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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:30 am, the temperature outside is 28.2 degrees.
It feels like 4:30 am to me!
It is chilly this morning, but today will be beautiful later. It will be sunny with a high temperature in the low to mid-60’s. The low tonight will be warmer, in the upper 30’s. It is going to be warm this week, with highs in the 60’s to 70 degrees and lows in the 40’s and 50’s. Spring is here, finally!
Little River is flowing at 373 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.42 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 392 cfs. The water temperature is 42.3 degrees.
We have a USGS gauge on the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River at Gatlinburg. You can see it by CLICKING HERE. I heard about it yesterday. I think it has been there for a while, maybe a year or longer. This is great news. We can see flow data at the point where the stream exits Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I will put a link to the gauge on the list below.
Flow on the West Prong of Little Pigeon at Gatlinburg is 88.5 cfs or 3.34 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 63 cfs, based on “1 water years of record”. They did not install a temperature probe. I wish they had. I am guessing, the water is chilly this morning.
Most streams in the Smoky Mountains are flowing near normal today.
The water is cool but that will change later today. Fishing may be good, or at least fair. Fishing will be good this week. Water temperatures will rise. Trout and aquatic insects will be active. Anglers will enjoy good fishing again.
If you go early, use nymph rigs. The trout will be sluggish until the water warms. Fish the low elevations where the water is warmer. Be ready with dry flies and emergers. There is no telling what aquatic insects you will see and that depends somewhat on the elevation where you are fishing. As the week progresses, fishing will improve each day.
I checked most of the TVA dam schedules. I did not see any fishing opportunities on our tailwaters. TVA had a glitch in their reporting system. At 2 am and in some cases at other times overnight, the data indicated a minus discharge of 999 cfs at most of the dams. That would lead us to believe the water was running from the rivers below the dams, through the dams and into the impoundments above. That is impossible of course. Water does not run uphill without the benefit of a pump. A 999 cfs pump would be huge and cost prohibitive.
Yesterday, we held our last Free Fly Tying Demonstration this Winter. Jack Gregory and Walter Babb drew a huge crowd. It was a beautiful day. It was a great day. I worked in my office most of the time, but I did get to talk to several old friends when I took a break.
When Paula and I built our building, we provided for parking of 50 vehicles with plenty of space to back out without hitting another vehicle. That cost a ton of money even 16 years ago. People probably thought we were crazy.
Additionally, we had to install required catch basins, three of them, to drain water to our retention pond next to the post office due to the footprint of the large parking lot and building. The retention pond is usually dry, but it is there when needed. You probably never noticed it.
Many of our customers drive big trucks, to tow travel trailers. We learned over the years, at another location, having a long distance to back up and pull out was essential or at least convenient for some of our customers. So, we made the distance longer for that purpose, two to three feet longer than normal.
Why would a fly shop need 50 parking spots? Yesterday was one of those days.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
March 8, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
