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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:41 am, the temperature is 20.3 degrees.
It will be sunny today with a high temperature in the middle to upper 40’s and a low in the middle 20’s tonight. It will be sunny and warmer tomorrow. The high temperature is predicted to be around 50 degrees, falling to the middle 30’s overnight.
Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road) is open. Watch for snow and ice. Laurel Creek Road, from Townsend to Cades Cove is open. Little River Road from the Townsend “Y” to the Sugarlands Visitor Center is still closed. CLICK HERE to visit the Park’s Roads Twitter page for updates. Little River Road may re-open later today.
Little River is flowing at 279 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.24 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 294 cfs. The water temperature is 36.9 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the Smokies are flowing near normal. The water is cold. Trout are lethargic. Fishing will be slow due to the cold water conditions.
Lowland river fishing for smallmouth bass is slow as the water temperature is way below their preferred temperature range. Fishing for stocked trout in these rivers will likely be slow today. If you decided to fish the stocked streams, use sub-surface flies.
There will be constant generation at many dams today. I saw breaks in the generation schedules at South Holston, Watauga and Chatuge dams. Check the TVA website from the links below to see if you can work with the scheduled flows at your favorite tailwater.
February is about one week away. On average, February is warmer than January. Mid to late February has been much warmer in some recent years. We have witnessed Spring hatches and good fishing in the free flowing streams in February, but more often in March.
What we need is a sustained water temperature around 50 degrees for Spring fishing to begin in the Smokies. Trout will become active. Aquatic insects will become active. We as anglers will become active. That is what we are all waiting for. Nobody knows when that will occur this year but we are all hopeful it will be sooner than later and we are all looking forward to the time.
We were busy at the shop yesterday. We will likely be busy today. Our customers are preparing for Spring fishing. Some customers are tying flies. That was obvious yesterday, as our fly tying department had one of the busiest days I can remember. Customers are buying flies, leaders, tippet, and other accessories. We are all preparing. We are organizing, to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 23,2022
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Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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