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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:18 am, the temperature outside is 19.7 degrees.

Today will be sunny and warm, with a high temperature near or above 50 degrees. Tonight will be clear, with a low in the mid-30’s. Rain arrives tomorrow, then possibly snow tomorrow night. Cold air returns Friday.

Little River is flowing at 146 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.84 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 282 cfs. The water temperature is 36.1 degrees this morning.

Fishing will be slow today due to the cold water. We will see the temps rise some today, but not enough to cause the trout to become active. The water will warm again tomorrow, and with the help of the rain, it may warm quite a bit. Tomorrow night, through the weekend, we expect the water temperatures to fall considerably.

I think tomorrow is your best shot for the remainder of the week. Fishing may not be good, but it will be improved.

I would use nymphs, probably some with rubber legs, hoping to entice a big brown and possibly some other normal sized trout.

Watch for the water temperatures to reach or exceed 45 degrees tomorrow. That may not happen, but it could. If it does, fish the low elevations. Try the Middle or West Prongs of Little River.

Little River Road, from Sugarlands to the Townsend “Y” is now open. Evidently, Highway 441 or Newfound Gap Road is still closed due to snow and ice. I would expect some roads will close tomorrow night, in the Park.

Not much has changed in the long term forecast through February 14th. Right now, it looks like fishing will be slow in the Smokies, through that period. I see the words “snow” and “ice” mentioned several times in that forecast.

We watch these long term forecasts, this time of year, so we will know when to pull the trigger on the shipments of Spring flies. They were ordered last Fall. We know from experience, we will need lots of Quill Gordons, Blue Quills and Blue Wing Olive dry flies at some point. When we see signs that the water temperature will reach 50 degrees, and sustain that number, Spring fishing will begin.

Lately, that magic time has occurred in mid February, to late February, or even early March. We used to expect this to happen in early to mid March. It is all driven by water temperature. Once the hatches of aquatic insects begin, they usually continue, even if the weather turns cold again.

You should try to be at the shop Saturday for our Free Fly Tying Demonstration. They are held between 10 am and 2 pm. All you have to do is show up.

Saturday will be very interesting and informative. Josh Pfeiffer will be one of the guys for you to meet, watch and talk to. Josh is a professional guide, who takes clients to the Smoky Mountains to fish for trout and floats them down the area tailwaters for trout.

Josh is also known to be an expert smallmouth bass guide. I have fished from his drift boat with him, on the lower tailwaters, fishing for smallies. He is very good at what he does. And, Josh is a great guy to spend the day with. He studied, prepared, tested, then became a U.S. Coast Guard Captain last year.

Jayson Alexander will also be tying and talking about his fly fishing experiences. Jayson is a graphic arts major at the University of Tennessee. He cut his teeth, learning to fly fish in the Smokies. Later, Jayson expanded his participation in the sport to warmwater fishing, especially smallmouth bass. You will enjoy and learn from Jayson.

Learn more about these guys and our Saturday Free Fly Tying Demonstrations by CLICKING HERE.

Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.

Byron Begley
January 31, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com