If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.
Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:06 am, the temperature outside is 47.5 degrees.
It will be mostly cloudy today with a high temperature in the low to mid-60’s. Showers will arrive tonight. Up to a quarter inch of rain is possible. Heavier rain is expected tomorrow. Rain is predicted through Wednesday morning.
Little River is flowing at 555 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.76 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 380 cfs. The water temperature is 52.2 degrees this morning.
Little Pigeon River is flowing high at the Sevierville gauge. Flow there is 1,620 cfs, 3.38 feet, compared to median flow of 720 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 867 cfs, 2.36 feet, compared to median flow of 691 cfs.
Tellico River is flowing at 536 cfs, 2.27 feet, compared to median flow of 362 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing near normal at 170 cfs, 2.84 feet, compared to median flow of 157 cfs.
West Prong of the Little Pigeon River at Gatlinburg is flowing at 157 cfs or 3.75 feet on the gauge.
As you can see, some streams are flowing much higher than normal while others are not. Most streams are swift. Be careful wading. I would stand in safe water and high stick nymph rigs. Fishing conditions are not ideal. But, trout are active thanks to the good water temperatures, especially in the lower elevations.
TVA has cut back on their discharges at a couple of the dams. Check the predicted flows at Cherokee and Douglas Dams. They are still generating around the clock at some other dams. They are sluicing at some. The trend is definitely moving toward improving tailwater fishing in our area.
I can’t wait for the day when they turn off the water at Norris Dam on the Clinch River. I won’t be there to fully enjoy the sight of a whole bunch of happy fly fishing enthusiasts who have been waiting for that day. I will be working. We are close to the point where TVA will be re-filling Norris Lake to full Summer pool. The lake level is rising right now. Maybe they are.
We finished our third week in March yesterday. I will run the numbers this morning comparing to last year. I think our sales will be down about 50%. Normally, that would be awful news. Not today. Right now, I feel good about it.
We are handling your needs using curbside procedures. Basically, we are doing your shopping for you, while talking to you on the phone. We are delivering the finished orders outside to our customers. They are using the credit card terminal on our front porch to finish the transaction. No customers are entering the store.
We are also taking care of many customers in the mailing department. Orders are coming in online or customers are calling us to place orders to be shipped. We are handling a lot more mail orders than usual.
There were only four of us working in the shop yesterday. Everyone is working hard.
Most customers are very happy and supportive that we are following the Federal guidelines.
There are a few who are not happy about it. They probably think we are overreacting. I dealt with one of those people yesterday. He was not happy at all. I met him at the door and held up my hand like I was holding a telephone and pointed to the large sign on our front door that reads, “Call us, 865-448-9459. He turned around and walked off, shrugging his shoulders.
Some people are not taking this as seriously as we are.
What I see is team spirit and morale at the highest level inside our store. We see the same thing in about 99.9% of our customers.
Thank you all for understanding and being supportive of us.
Byron Begley
March 22, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |