It’s been a long winter…. Usually when you hear that you’ll hear references to icy cold temperatures and snow measured in feet, but this year in East Tennessee has incredibly wet. We’ve had some cold weather and a little bit of snow, but we’re about to lose our mind with all the rain we’ve seen over the past few months.
85′ Bald River Falls absolutely spewing water into Tellico River
As I write this we’re experiencing our SECOND consecutive day of sunshine which feels lavish compared to the days of rain. This is the 6th day in a month without any precipitation, so you can see where I’m coming from. To put this in perspective it’s been our wettest February on record and fourth wettest winter on record. And lastly, our current rain surplus is right about the same is our average rainfall. We’re running about double on rainfall so far this year.
Yesterday I had to get out of the house even though there weren’t many options for fishing and almost all of my favorite trails would either be mushy or completely submerged. Furthermore, a good deal of the roads inside the national park from Townsend were closed because of some combination of high water, mudslides or downed trees. I took a short road trip down to the Tellico area of the Cherokee National Forest to see how those rivers had fared plus take a hike on a trail near Indian Boundary.
Baby Falls on Tellico River, typically 12-14′ depending upon water conditions was more like a heavy rapid than a waterfall
Water conditions in the Tellico watershed were no better than at home in the Smokies, but there didn’t seem to be any mudslides or rockslides. There also didn’t seem to be any damage from wind like we say in Blount and Sevier Counties where numerous trees were blown down.
This should all get back to normal-ish in a few more days, but the tailwater scene looks pretty grim. TVA is dealing with record rain and flooding. As a result our reservoirs in East Tennessee have been allowed to fill so flood waters downstream can recede. This means that most of our lakes are either near full or well beyond. Norris Lake will be about 10′ above full.
TVA normally has the lakes full in late May or early June after flood season has past. Unfortunately we still have March and April ahead of us, months when floods historically hit the Tennessee Valley, so TVA needs to get those reservoirs lowered again.
We’ll be seeing not just “high” flows on the Clinch, Holston, and French Broad but incredibly high water as these dams will begin spilling in a few days. It’s difficult to know when our big rivers will be fishing again, but hopefully we’ll be back on them by April if not sooner.
Fontana Dam spilling in June 2018