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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:56 am, the temperature outside is 50.0 degrees.

It will be mostly cloudy, with a chance for rain today. The rain chance increases tonight and tomorrow. One half to three quarters of an inch of rain is predicted tomorrow. It will be cold tomorrow night, with a chance for light rain or snow in the higher elevations. The weekend will be sunny and cold.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 406 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.50 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 144 cfs. The water temperature is 54.7 degrees this morning. We consider the water level in Little River, at 2.5 feet, to be on the high side of good.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 686 cfs, or 2.44 feet at the Sevierville gauge. Median flow for this date is 178 cfs.

Oconaluftee River at Birdtown is flowing at 656 cfs, 2.10 feet on the gauge, and that compares to median flow of 229 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek’s flow is 118 cfs, or 2.64 feet, compared to median flow of 49 cfs. The water temperature there is 50 degrees this morning.

The streams are flowing higher than normal but many are certainly fishable. Water temperatures in the low to mid elevations is within the trout’s preferred range. It will be mostly cloudy today. That is what they say. Sometimes they are wrong.

With the conditions we have right now, fishing should be good. I would start, fishing with nymphs or streamers. Nymph selection may include Tellico, Pheasant Tail, Prince, Hare’s Ear or any other reasonable patterns.

My streamer pick would be a Muddler Minnow or any other good sculpin pattern. You might catch a nice brown trout.

Be on the lookout for a blue wing olive hatch. This is a good day for BWO activity. If you see trout feeding them, switch to a dry fly or emerger or both. If the bugs are small, and some of the hatches lately have been small BWO’s, you might consider fishing a dry fly you can see, with the tiny blue wing olive fished behind, as a trailer. The more visible fly would serve as a strike indicator. If you see a rise behind your larger fly, a trout may have taken the smaller one trailing behind.

We may see higher water tomorrow, if the predicted rain is heavy. We will likely see water temperatures fall by Saturday morning.

The “Missing Link” of the new Foothills Parkway will open to traffic Saturday, weather permitting. If it does snow Friday night in the high elevations, it is possible the road will not open as scheduled. The completed and adjoining older section is closed often, due to snow and ice on the roads.

Paula and I plan to take a trip to Knoxville tomorrow, to buy some new bird feeders and squirrel baffles. We’ll go to Knoxville Seed to buy 100 pounds of shelled sunflower seeds. Then we will sink 4” x 4” posts in the ground behind the house, install the baffles and wait for the bear activity to slow. We saw a bear behind the house last week. They are still very active.

We have found, if we have feeders on the posts, bears will tear them down. If they see the posts, they stand up and sniff. If there is no food, they usually move on. We have watched them do this in the past.

A bear once tore a bird feeder off of a post during the night. The feeder was destroyed. I was looking outside the next day, and the bear came back for more. The animal checked out the post then walked away, disappointed.

When we are not seeing bears, and we think they may have denned, we’ll put the feeders out during the day, then bring them inside at night.

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

Byron Begley
November 8, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com