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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 7:09 am, the temperature outside is 25.2 degrees.

Today will be sunny and cool with a high temperature in the low to mid 50’s. Warmer air will move in tonight. Expect high temperatures in the upper 50’s tomorrow. Friday will be warmer, around 60 degrees. The weekend will be beautiful, warm and mostly dry.

Little River is flowing at 299 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.26 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 375 cfs. The water temperature is 43.7 degrees this morning. Yesterday, lower Little River warmed to about 49 degrees.

For a couple of days, fishing will be best in the afternoons when the water is warmer. Water temperatures will rise at the peak of the day from now and through the weekend. That will improve fishing. Fishing is better when the temps are in the upper 40’s to the mid and upper 50’s.

Fishing is fair to good and it will improve every day. There are some hatches occurring but they are sporadic. That could change at any time. Be ready for dry fly action. If the trout are not taking dries, switch to nymphs.

I would certainly have some Parachute Adams dries in my box, in sizes #12 to #16. You may want to have some Quill Gordon, Blue Quill and maybe March Brown dries. If you are fishing in the higher elevations, Spring is earlier there. The water is colder and it has been colder.

We are seeing a lot of out of town anglers. Many are here from northern states, to enjoy our warmer fly fishing conditions. And, there are fishermen from the South too. Fishing in the Southern Appalachians is a good choice right now. The torrential rain we have endured this Winter has limited our choices for a time. Hopefully our tailwaters will be fishable soon.

Many dams in the Tennessee Valley and elsewhere, are either spilling or sluicing, lowering the impoundments to create water storage capacity.

This drying out period we have now will help, at least in our area. Flooding is awful in the Midwest.

We are all looking forward to this coming weekend and the week after. I think fishing conditions will be perfect in the mountains. There is a chance for rain at times but I don’t see anything significant headed our way. I don’t see the words “heavy rain” in the 10-day forecast.

What I do is is warmer weather, lasting through early April. This may be a very good fly fishing Spring.

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

Byron Begley
March 19, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com

Nymphing Tactics - $150
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Euro Nymphing - $100
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