The Hiwassee River is back to normal....

The Hiwassee has definitely had it's ups and downs over the past month. For several weeks we had the pleasure of experiencing some very high water flows as the Tennessee Valley Authority was spilling water from Appalachia Dam down the old section of river bed that was bypassed back in the 1940,s. It took a couple of weeks but the lake levels were dropped back to winter pool and we are now experiencing a normal two turbine flow around 2800cfs once again. If we can keep getting enough rain then we might actually have some water flowing on the upper section of river this spring, but that's a hard one to call. The TVA will usually stop generation in the spring time so that they can bring the reservoir up to summer levels for the recreational release flow that they schedule for the summer months. The Delayed Harvest Regulation will end on March 1 and the river will be open to all types of fishing. So far we have had a great year and i think that this will continue on through the spring and into the summer months. So cross your fingers, say a couple of Hail Mary's, as this has the potential to be one of the best years that we have seen in a while. The winter stones have been coming off regularly on the warmer days over the past month and we had about an hour or so of dry fly fishing this past Sunday on the river and the fish all looked to healthy and in good condition. The river is fishing great right now and should only get better as the weather improves with the arrival of spring.