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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:47 am, the temperature outside is 51.1 degrees.

Today will be overcast and unfortunately, wet again. Rainfall amounts of between a quarter and half of an inch are possible. Rain is expected again tonight, up to one quarter of an inch is possible. This is the last thing we need right now. Sometimes, the rainfall amounts are higher in the Smoky Mountains, than are predicted on weather websites.  

The rain should end Friday morning. Expect a high temperature near 70 degrees Friday and Saturday. The high will be in the mid-60’s Sunday. It will be sunny with no rain expected Saturday and Sunday.

Little River is flowing at 965 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 3.28 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 248 cfs. The water temperature is 52.3 degrees this morning.

Yesterday, Little River peaked at 3.5 feet and it did not recede much during the day. With more rain expected today and tonight, the streams will likely remain high. All streams in the Park that have USGS flow gauges, are flowing higher than normal.

We got a lot more rain than was predicted night before last and yesterday morning.

If you go, be careful wading.   

There may be some fishable streams to fish, but you will need to look for them. Ask the guys at the shop what they have heard from anglers. There are many friends and customers in town now, fly fishing in the Park. I got an e-mail from Buddy yesterday. He said he would be searching for angler friendly water.

You might try Anthony Creek, which is accessed at the Cades Cove Picnic Area. Laurel Creek may be fishable. Look at the West and Middle Prongs of Little River.

You may find stained water again today, depending on how much rain we get.

I hate it when this happens, and I know there are a lot of anglers in town, on their first Spring 2018 fishing trip to the Smokies. I know how they feel. Before moving here 25 years ago, I was a visiting angler to the Smokies. I’ve been “weathered out” here and many other places, all of my life.

My hope is, the water levels will be much better by the weekend. The stream temperatures will be very good.

The Fisheries Biologists have opened two new restored brook trout streams in the Park, which brings the total to 13 and about 30 miles of pure southern Appalachian brook trout waters.

Upper Anthony Creek and a portion of Little Cataloochee Creek are the two new streams. There is an article on the WBIR website on the subject. You can read it by CLICKING HERE. The article is written by Jim Matheny. Jim does a lot of television work about fishing. He interviewed Matt Kulp. Matt is the supervisory fisheries biologist at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I met Matt and we became friends, when he was hired. I think that was about 20 years ago.

Here is another great article about fly fishing in the Smoky Mountains, written by Tom Wiest for the El Paso Inc. magazine. Tom actually lives in our County, far from Texas. CLICK HERE to read it. He mentions that brown trout live to be up to 10 years old in the Park, and reach a length of 25 to 30 inches. He also wrote, the browns are hard to catch. He is correct on both accounts. Tom mentions us at Little River Outfitters in the article. Thanks Tom.

The generators should be off at times at both Norris and Cherokee Dams today. You may want to try one of those rivers. Check the TVA website before you go. The flows will likely be off and on throughout the day, and the schedule is subject to change.

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

Byron Begley
April 26, 2018    

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com