If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.
Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:31 am, the temperature is 21.4 degrees.
It snowed last night. It looks like we have about an inch on the ground.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park management closed several roads, including Little River Road, Laurel Creek Road, Cades Cove Loop Road and Newfound Gap Road.
It is cold this morning and it is going to stay that way today and tonight. Expect a high around 30 degrees today with a low in the middle to upper teens tonight. It will be sunny and warmer tomorrow, with a high in the upper 40’s and a low tomorrow night in the middle to upper 20’s.
Streams in the Smokies are flowing lower than normal and cold. The water temperature in Little River at the low elevation USGS gauge site is currently 37.4 degrees. The water temperature at Cataloochee Creek is 33.8 degrees.
Fishing in the mountains will be slow today. Access to some streams is limited due to closed roads.
Lowland river fishing for smallmouth bass and trout is slow due to the cold water temperatures.
TVA is in the business of generating power and that is what I would expect them to be doing today. But, there are long breaks planned in the generation schedules at some dams. Visit the TVA website from the links below to see what options you may have today.
Wind chill factors will be dangerously low today. Dress warm and don’t fall in if you go fishing. Have plenty of warm dry clothes in your truck just in case.
I would not go fishing today but there was a time when I was younger, that I would.
Jack and I were wading and fishing on the Gibbon River in Yellowstone Park years ago. It was snowing “sideways”. He had a thermometer attached to his jacket. He checked, and the temperature was colder than 10 degrees. We walked back to camp to sit by the fire. Yes, we were camping.
Frank, Brad and I were fishing on the Manistee River in Michigan the first week of December years ago. We were hoping to catch lake run brown trout. We fished all day for three days and didn’t catch one fish. Brad did foul hook and land a zebra mussel on a weighted Prince Nymph. Every morning, when we headed out, the temperature was in single digits. During the day, it never warmed over 20 degrees. On the third day of fishing, the river began turning to slush.
Frank and I were camping and fishing in the Smokies in the 80’s. We were camping at what is now the KOA. The temperature was 17 degrees when we woke up one morning. My contacts had frozen in the case.
We went to breakfast at a restaurant in Townsend and the lady waiting on us said, “I bet you guys snuggled last night”. Frank quickly said, “No, we were sleeping in separate tents”. I told her the same thing, to make what Frank told her perfectly clear.
I don’t think we caught anything on that trip either.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 29, 2022
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
|