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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. The sun is quickly burning off the heavy fog that covered Townsend this morning when I drove in. Winter tried to make a last showing last night with freezing temperatures and frost on car windows. Weather in East Tennessee is always something.
Water levels on Little River have been coming down over the last several days. The river is just on the high side of what most people feel is a fishable flow. This morning the gauge is reading 2.53 feet or 442 c.f.s. This is a little higher than the daily normal of 352 c.f.s.
Water temperatures have been dropping steadily over the past couple of days. This morning the temp was down to 46.4 F. These colder conditions will make fishing slower. Mid day to afternoon will be better times to go as the sun is able to warm the water.
The weather forecast looks nice through the weekend. Rain chances are very low and everything is going to warm up.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park remains closed and likely will until the end of April. This severely limits fishing opportunities as everyone tries to "social distance". Local ponds might be the best bet for a while. Last I heard Cherokee National Forest is still open to fishing. From pictures I've seen parking lots were very crowded. Too many people in certain areas is one of the reasons the National Park closed. We all need to spread out and give everyone space.
Tailwater fishing is out today also. Taking a quick look at the TVA websites for the area dams it looks like all are sluicing or full generators.
If you do head out somewhere to trout fish today I would start with nymphs. Fish heavily weighted flies or add split shot. The trout will be lethargic in the cold water. Later in the day you might be able to fish some dry flies. Stocked trout are usually better with nymphs or streamers.
Hopefully you all are staying cheerful as you try to figure out living in this new reality. Here at the Shop we are trying to stay as normal as possible. We have the door locked to comply with governmental guidelines but we are still open for business. Just give us a call and we can bring your purchase out to you or ship it to you at no cost to you.
We are taking this time to work on the Online Store. Byron is adding fly tying materials to the site. Right now he is adding hooks and next will probably beads and thread. Eventually all of it will be there for you to browse. It is a huge job with photographs to be taken and text to be written.
Until all the materials are online give us a call and we are happy to pull together materials for you. If you aren't fully sure what material you need it is very helpful to us to know what pattern you are tying. Knowing what the fly is helps us get you the correct materials. Many materials are called similar but are very different. Saddle hackle for example has two very different uses for the same actual item. Dry fly saddles are excellent for tying dry flies. They are thing and have nice stiff hackles. They are ideal for tying dry flies. Strung Saddle Hackle is the same chicken feather but from a different type of chicken and is used for a different purpose. Strung Saddle is a shorter, wider and webbier hackle. You would use this feather for streamers like wooly buggers.
Give us a call. We are still here for you every day.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Daniel Drake
April 2, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |