Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:45 am, the temperature in Townsend is 56 degrees.

Showers and thunderstorms moved into the area early yesterday morning. The rain continued to fall until the afternoon. We got 1.92 inches in Townsend. The Knoxville Airport reported 1.32 inches.

Today will begin cloudy before clearing later with a high temperature in the upper 60’s dropping to the upper 40’s overnight.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high in the low 60’s and a low around the freezing mark overnight.

It will be cold at night early next week with lows in the low 30’s Sunday and in the middle 20’s Monday night. Temperatures are expected to dip into the 30’s again Tuesday night. Water temperatures will fall before warming again beginning Thursday.

Little River is flowing at 784 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.02 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 367 cfs. The water temperature is 53.6 degrees this morning.

Most streams on the west side of the Smokies are flowing very high this morning. Many are unsafe to wade. Less rain fell on the North Carolina side of the mountains. Most streams there are flowing closer to normal. Water temperatures are good in the low elevations.

If you go today, you might want to choose a stream on the east side of the mountains. Check the USGS gauge sites to get an idea what to expect. Fish in the low elevations where the water is warmer. Nymphs, wet flies and dry flies should work for you. You may see sporadic hatches of Blue Quills, Quill Gordons or other aquatic insects.

Fishing for stocked trout will be good in the rivers that are flowing lower.

There are long breaks in the generation scheduled at some dams today. Check the schedules at Center Hill, Cherokee, Dale Hollow and Tims Ford. Maybe you can work with some of those. If you are boating, you have more options from our vast list of tailwaters in the region.

We are busy at the shop. Customers are buying gear, replacing or upgrading for the Spring fly fishing season, which has begun. Wading gear is selling well and we’ve got plenty of it.

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

Byron Begley
March 16, 2024

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Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com