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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:09 am, the temperature outside is 45.9 degrees.
 
Today will be warm, near or above 70 degrees. Showers and a possible thunderstorm are likely this morning. This afternoon will be cloudy, then mostly sunny. Only a tenth of an inch of rain is predicted. It may be windy. A chance for scattered thunderstorms looms tonight. The low temperature is expected to be in the upper 40’s.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high temperature in the mid-60’s.

Little River is flowing at 242 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.08 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 396 cfs. The water temperature is 47.1 degrees this morning.

The water temperature in Little River rose to over 48 degrees yesterday. We will see some rise in water temperatures today and tomorrow. Fishing should be fair to good today. As the water temps rise above 50 degrees, fishing improves greatly. If somehow it makes it to the mid-50’s, fishing will be good to excellent.

The only negative I see right now is the chance for thunderstorms and possible stained water. The chance is low. Also, the wind may not be friendly to us today at times, especially in thunderstorms.

I think you should go! Fishing will likely be best in the afternoon today. Unless your favorite stream is blown out tonight, fishing should be even better tomorrow.

You will see aquatic insects on the water, so be prepared for dry fly fishing. Hatches are sporadic, so you may need to use nymphs or wet flies to catch trout. Dropping a nymph or wet fly off your dry is a good idea. Stick with the darker colors for mayflies.

The trout are active, and will become more active as the water warms further through the weekend.

According to TWRA, bears are becoming active too. If you are camping, keep your food stored or hung. If you live here, bring in your bird feeders. We have not seen a bear at our house this Spring. It’s only a matter of time. Our bird feeders are stored until next Winter.

The wild turkeys are preparing to mate. The young males (jakes) have been separated from the hens by the older gobblers. The males are gobbling and fanning.

Of the 36 wild turkeys that live around our house, there was only one gobbler, a young one, about 22 months old now, with 12 to 15 jakes and 20 hens. The gobbler has been fanning often, and gobbling, especially in the mornings. He separated the jakes and hens. He was set for the Spring mating season, happy about the situation he found himself in.

Two days ago, two 3-year old gobblers showed up. Paula and I saw them right behind our house. I think they are the two brothers, who grew up here, and stayed together. One is dominant over the other but they get along well. They lived somewhere else during the Fall and Winter.

It didn’t take long for them to find the flock of 36. I assume they had some rounds with the younger gobbler, which is smaller than the brothers. Now, the young gobbler, is running with the jakes, maybe postponing his chance to mate for another year. He looks disappointed and embarrassed.

I feel bad for him. He has always been friendly to me. It’s funny how nature works, isn’t it?

I have a ton of photos of the brothers, taken last Spring. I’m glad they lived. I thought they may have died last year. So now, we have 38 wild turkeys running around ours and our neighbor’s property. It is rare to walk outside and not see several.

This weekend will be a good one, to spend time in the forest with the wildlife.

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

Byron Begley
March 17, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com