If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.
Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:45 am, the temperature outside is 41.9 degrees.
It will be very cold today and tonight, with a high temperature in the mid to upper 30’s or the low 40’s, dropping to the low 20’s tonight. We have a good chance for rain or snow today. Accumulation on roads in the valley is not expected. The total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch is possible. Tomorrow will be cold again, with a high in the upper 30’s and a low in the low 20’s tomorrow night.
Little River is flowing at 447 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.60 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 341 cfs. The water temperature is 46.8 degrees and falling.
Little Pigeon River is flowing at 1,210 cfs, 2.99 feet, compared to median flow of 734 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 1,100 cfs, 2.71 feet, which compares to median flow of 597 cfs. The water temperature is 46.9 degrees and falling.
Tellico River is flowing at 771 cfs, 2.65 feet, compared to median flow of 377 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 250 cfs, 3.10 feet, which compares to median flow of 137 cfs.
Though most if not all streams are flowing above median flow, some are fishable. Some of them are swift so be careful wading.
Water temperatures are falling and they will continue to fall over the next couple of days. Warmer days and nights are predicted beginning Sunday.
If you go today, nymph rigs will probably work best.
TVA and the Corps are generating around the clock, pushing a lot of water through the dams. They are sluicing in most cases and even spilling in others. Lake levels are higher than they were last year at this time, but they are receding.
This week last year is when the heavy rain began. We got 6.74 inches from the 20th to the 28th of February. We got another 3.55 inches during the first 15 days of March. Lakes and rivers swelled. They were generating at the dams for a long time, keeping us from fishing the tailwaters and at times, the freestone streams.
Looking at the long term weather forecast, it appears that will not happen this year, at least through March 5th. The lake levels are not close to as high as they were in early March last year. That gives me hope we won’t have another early Spring like we had last year. Maybe we will be fishing the tailwaters much earlier this year.
Join us Saturday at the shop. We are holding our free fly tying demonstration between 10 am and 2 pm. Our featured guests are John Chambers and Mark Longmire. These guys are Euro Nymphing experts.
John works at the shop and teaches our Euro Nymphing classes. He will be tying heavy anchor nymphs and talking about his fly fishing nymphing techniques.
Mark is one of the owners of Syndicate, makers of fine fly rods and headquartered in Knoxville. His company makes fine Euro Nymphing fly rods. Mark has fished all over the world.
If you are interested in this very effective method of fly fishing, join us Saturday. All you have to do is show up. Your fly fishing will improve after spending a few hours with John and Mark. You will learn a lot of new techniques.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
February 20, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
