Toccoa River Tailwater...

TVA is currently running a higher minim flow on the Toccoa to keep the reservoir at a constant level. I Have heard that the intake for the constant flow generator was damaged and that they are unable to use it. TVA is currently either spilling or sluicing water at a rate of around 460 cfs. I am still waiting on a report to find out what the water temps are running. Worst case scenario is that if they are spilling the surface water temp could possibly cause another fish kill. If they are sluicing and can maintain the water temps then the river should be fine. For now though it looks like we will all just have to wait and see.

From  www.tva.gov

May 1, 2012 — TVA will continuing holding the water level in Blue Ridge Reservoir at approximately 1,672 feet (its current elevation) at least through the end of July 2012. This means the reservoir will remain below normal summer pool for this year.
Blue Ridge Dam is safe and stable. There is no change in the dam’s ability to hold water.
Because public safety is TVA’s number one priority, we are being overly cautious and holding the reservoir at this level after we saw unexpected ground movement on March 7, 2012. This movement occurred during the completion of the two-year Blue Ridge Dam rehabilitation project.
To ensure long-term dam safety, we are conducting significant monitoring, testing and analysis on the earlier ground movement at the dam. Holding the reservoir steady provides TVA consistent conditions for collecting the data necessary to complete a full engineering evaluation. It removes the variable of fluctuating water pressure against the dam from monitoring readings. This will allow us to determine if additional long-term stability work is necessary before completing the dam rehabilitation project.

Hiwassee River Stripers...

Short and sweet, we have boated the first striper of the 2012 season. Jerry Weicken and myself went out for a quick run to see if we could stick a few of the big ones. We were starting to wonder if we would see any at all, but that's about the time we hooked up. It's a nice fish to start off the season.

Clinch, Holston, Hiwassee & Tellico.....

      Well spring has come and is almost gone the first days of summer are not far off. We have been fishing on quite a bit of water lately. With the lower Hiwassee warming up the bass fishing is there but not much in the way of trout anymore that went down the tubes a week or so ago. The Clinch in Knoxville is fishing well and TVA has been giving us some favorable flow rates over the past few weeks. The sulphurs have been showing up and we have been catching some nice fish during our days on the water.The Holston on the east side of town has been fishing well also over the past couple of weeks with the fish eating a variety of fly's.

     The Hiwassee is fishing good even with TVA trying to kill our fish with low water flows, but our recreational release schedule will begin in another week and after that it's all good. We have been catching some nice fish on the 'Wass lately and our sulphurs have started showing up. With all the good fishing that we have had so far, the summer season should be one of the best we have seen in a while.

     Over the past week or two i have also been up on the Tellico for a few days here and there. The water was running around a 1.2 level or 130 cfs the last time i was there. It's a good level for wading and the fishing was good on every trip. We have been catching some of the usual stockers along with a few holdovers from the D.H. as well. So there's plenty of fish in the Tellico. All in all, pick where you want to fish and go get 'em. If you not catching fish them keep changing it up till you find something that works for you. Sooner or later it will happen.

Tight Lines and good fishin,
Bill

The first video is from the other day on the Tellico River and the Second is kind of a compilation of stuff from Mark's camera and mine from the Hiwassee this spring.

boots wet on the "wass.

I made it on the water for a couple hours today with an old friend. I will say where, but it was some of the best wade fishing that i have done in a long time. We had Hendricksons pouring off the water solid for the first hour or so. The hatch slowed up a little after that, but the fish were looking up so that what we did. Three & 1/2 hours on the water and i don't know how many fish were caught. The river is fishing like a champ right now.
    
Let me throw this in as an afterthought.

*******Before you go wade fishing on the Hiwassee River. Either call or look at the TVA generation schedule for Appalachia Dam or stop by Reliance Fly & Tackle to check on your way up the river.*******

Every year we have people getting caught by the water because they looked up the generation schedule for Hiwassee Dam.