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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:45 am, the temperature is 43.3 degrees.
Today will be mostly sunny with a high temperature in the upper 60’s dropping to the middle 50’s tonight. We have a slight chance for rain today and tonight. Expect rain tomorrow with a high in the low 70’s and a low in the upper 50’s. Wednesday and Thursday will be wet and warm. Rainfall totals are expected to be between 1 and 3 inches this week. This Spring-like warmth is predicted to last through Saturday.
Little River is flowing at 144 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.98 feet on the Townsend gauge. Median flow for this date is 288 cfs. The water temperature is 50.2 degrees this morning.
Fishing in the Smokies is fair to good. Nymphs may work best but you will likely see hatches of blue wing olives, tiny black stoneflies and other aquatic insects. Trout may not be rising to the adult insects that are on the water but anything is possible under these warm water conditions. Fish the low elevations where the water is warmer and stay hidden from the trout.
If we get 1 to 3 inches of rain, streams will rise and may become stained which could put a damper on the fishing at some point this week. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Lowland rivers are flowing lower than normal but warm. Smallmouth bass may be active. Stocked trout in these rivers are active. Nymphs, streamers and crayfish patterns may work for the bass. Nymphs, egg patterns, Squirmy Worms and mop flies will catch stocked trout.
There are short breaks in the generation schedule at some dams and longer breaks at others. Check out Norris, Watauga and South Holston Dams. Evidently, they will not be sluicing at Watauga. Wade fishing anglers have a few choices while boating fishermen have more today.
This is normally a busy week at the shop. We were loaded up with customers yesterday. Many of them were enjoying the Spring-like weather and fishing. I worked in the fly tying department all day, receiving orders and putting the materials and tools out for display. I also talked to a lot of fly tyers.
Jack has been telling me about a huge bear that has been spotted in the Walland area for a long time. It has been seen around homes in the rural area, and photographed on trail cameras. One man has been hunting this bear for years. Two or three weeks ago, during the last hunting season, he finally shot the bear and during one of the hunts, it killed one of his favorite hounds.
The bear weighed 615 pounds. I have never seen one that large, not even close. The hunter asked Jack to butcher the bear, which he did. Jack was at our house Christmas Eve. I asked him if the bear was a state record. He told me it was the 5th largest bear harvested in Tennessee.
I checked the black bear harvest numbers on the TWRA website for this year. A total of 273 were killed in Tennessee. In our county (Blount), 22 were killed. Hunters in Sevier County reported 86.
I have been on a couple of boar and bear hunts and it is a lot of fun. I love hearing those hounds chasing bear and wild boar. It is a Southern Appalachian tradition. I care nothing about shooting a bear, but I do carry a rifle, a lever action 45-70 with open sights. Nobody uses scoped rifles. They guys tell me the average shot is 50 feet. If given the chance, I know I would not do it. I don’t like killing anything.
The best part is spending the weekend camping with a bunch of good guys who love hunting and fly fishing. I get invited every year. Someday I will go with them again.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
December 27, 2021
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Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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