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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 7:05 am, the temperature outside is 27.1 degrees.

It is another cold morning but that is about to end, finally. Today will be sunny and warmer, around 60 degrees. Tonight, the temperature will fall only to the low 40’s. Expect light rain tomorrow and a high in the low 50’s, dipping to the mid 30’s tomorrow night. Expect temperatures about the same as tomorrow on Friday.

This coming weekend looks better, but cooler than was predicted a few days ago.

Little River is flowing at 275 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.20 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 361 cfs. The water temperature is 44.1 degrees this morning. Yesterday, the temperature climbed to 48 degrees.

Water temperatures have slowed the fishing this week, especially early in the mornings. Fishing in the afternoons is much better. I still think we will see the temps climb this weekend and maybe before. Fishing is OK when the water temps are in the upper 40’s but fishing improves significantly when that number reaches 50 degrees or warmer.

Flows are perfect in the Smokies.

I am telling customers to have different sizes of Parachute Adams dry flies in their box. And I’m recommending Pheasant Tail nymphs as a backup plan. If you go early start with nymphs. After the water warms some, switch to a dry fly and see what happens.

I would also fish in the lower elevations where the water is warmer. Try the West Prong and Middle Prong of Little River. Venture upstream on the East Prong too. You may do fine later in the day. Anglers are reporting catching trout but I think most are finding slow fishing early in the mornings.

Wow! It is dawn. The clouds in the sky are orange. I think we are going to have a beautiful sunrise. I see the sun come up over the mountain peaks from my office windows at the shop. For the past two years, or longer, I have been writing this report from my home office and I miss the sunrises. One reason is, I used to start writing about about 5:30 am. Then I would continue to work. My office at home has a view of the forest, but the view is west. I’m enjoying the change of scenery.

Yesterday, guide David Knapp mentioned something to me about the flows at Norris Dam. I checked this morning. The inflow at the lake is decreasing, due to the dryer weather. Sluicing and generating at the dam is much greater than the inflow, so the lake level is falling at about one foot per day. The current lake level is about 10 feet higher than TVA would prefer.

At one foot per day, the lake would be closer to normal for this time of the year in ten days. But, TVA’s projected outflow is predicted to decrease over the next two days, after today. I guess they want to take some pressure off the Tennessee River.

Everyone who fishes the Clinch River tailwater is hoping for normal flows again. Maybe it won’t be far off. I hope normal will be sooner than later.

The orange clouds just turned white. I guess we’ll have a normal sunrise soon.

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

Byron Begley
March 20, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com

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