Last week was just one of those weeks… This is my twentieth season guiding and Charity’s thirteenth so it’s not new, but you certainly don’t like it. A constant parade of weather disturbances came through featuring everything from snow, to rain, to high winds. It was just a tough week with yo-yo-ing water temps and flaky fish attitudes. There were some great moments, but plenty of tough ones too and we’d prefer to just get on past it.
This week is starting with a minor high water event in the Smokies, but nothing out of the ordinary. That’s minor in the sense that while rivers and streams are blown out today we expect them to be negotiable tomorrow and excellent the balance of the week. It’s April after all and a few heavy rains are part of the package.
You can track water levels on a number of area streams on our Stream Levels page. We also provide information about when a stream should be considered “fishable” or “blown out”.
The forecast for the balance of the week is for sunny or partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s. We’ll take it! Even better, we can’t help but notice perfect weather forecast for our Hazel Creek camp next weekend.
Trout Lilies and other wildflowers are blooming in profusion along Smokies streams this week
We expect there will be some muddy water on the tailwaters today as well, but that should clear up. Right now flows from Norris Dam favor wade fishing on the upper sections of the river anyway and that almost always stays clear as the prime contributors of muddy water are from the I-75 bridge on downstream.
Master of all he surveys. An osprey watches over the Clinch River.
The Hiwassee, South Holston, and Watauga will likely be muddy today as well, but should clear by tomorrow. All of them have superb schedules for fishing by the way. Keep an eye out for caddis on the Hiwassee and Watauga. Nymphing is still the prime method for those fishing on the Clinch and Holston. Floaters on the latter two may find streamer fishing to be pretty good too.
Some very nice fish are moving on the tailwaters right now