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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:45 am, the temperature outside is 50 degrees.

It will be sunny and warm today with a high temperature in the upper 70’s. There is a 50% chance for showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. It will be warm again. The chance for rain and thunderstorms continues through the weekend. Some strong thunderstorms may occur Sunday.

Little River is flowing at 657 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.93 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 327 cfs. The water temperature is 55.9 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 1,580 cfs, 3.35 feet and that compares to median flow of 600 cfs for this date.

Tellico River’s current flow is 570 cfs, 2.29 feet, compared to median flow of 360 cfs.

Oconaluftee River is flowing at 811 cfs, 2.31 feet, compared to median flow of 630 cfs. The water temperature is 55.0 degrees.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 167 cfs, 2.83 feet, compared to median flow of 135 cfs. The water temperature is 51.4 degrees.

Some streams are still flowing high while others are closer to median flow. If you go today, especially in the Little Pigeon and Little River watersheds, be careful wading. Other streams may be too swift to safely wade. They will be receding all day, so, the later you go, the less flow there will be.

I would start with heavily weighted nymphs and high stick, or euro nymph fish. Watch for hatches. There are many different species of active aquatic insects present. You may see a hatch or you may not. The trout are used to looking to the surface for food. I would try different dry flies, if no bugs are present. A Parachute Adams or Elk Hair Caddis are good searching patterns.

If you see a hatch, with trout rising to the bugs, switch to a dry fly that looks similar to the actual living insect. You may want to drop a small nymph or wet fly off your dry.

Check the TVA website to determine the generation schedules on your favorite trout or smallmouth bass tailwater. There are opportunities today on several, whether you are wading or boating.

The Corps is sluicing and generating at Center Hill Dam. There will be heavy generation all day today at Wolf Creek Dam.

The lowland rivers are flowing fairly high. Little River through town looked to be flowing too strong for much wading yesterday. The water temperatures are rising, so smallmouth bass fishing is getting better daily. White bass will be choking the streams on their Spring run soon, or maybe they have started.

A bill in the Tennessee legislature would abolish changing our clocks twice each year. If passed, we would remain on Daylight Savings Time, which would suit me just fine. If the bill passes the Senate, this change would have to be approved by Congress. You can read more by CLICKING HERE.

Paula and I stayed on daylight savings time for two years. To me it was a test and a form of protest. I liked it. I think she did too. We always had to mentally adjust for appointments. I used the current actual time when writing this report. We finally gave up last year.

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

Byron Begley
April 11, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com