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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:43 am, the temperature outside is 20.5 degrees.

It will be partly cloudy and warmer today. Tomorrow will be similar, but even warmer. The weekend will be much warmer. We will enjoy Spring-like weather next week.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 315 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.30 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 282 cfs. The water temperature is 35.8 degrees this morning.

Some streams are colder than Little River. Oconaluftee River at the Birdtown gauge is indicating a temperature right now of 34.7 degrees and Cataloochee Creeks is colder, 32.2 degrees.

Fishing in the Smoky Mountains will be slow until the streams warm to above 40 degrees. You won’t have to wait long. That should happen this weekend. Fishing will improve even more, next week.

January is about over. February is historically warmer than January. Some years, Spring fishing begins in February. Maybe this will be one of those years.

I remember when there was a trout season in Tennessee, Cherokee National Forest, and the Great Smoky Mountains. Trout season opened April 1st and closed for the year in October. We missed some great fly fishing opportunities during that time.

I don’t remember exactly when trout season was eliminated statewide. I do remember when the season was lifted on Abrams Creek. For some reason, when the other streams across the state and in the Smokies became a year-round fishery, Abrams Creek was left out. That rule changed sometime during the mid-80’s.

Steve Moore was hired to be the new fisheries biologist at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1983. He told me, one of his first decisions was, lifting the fishing season at Abrams Creek. I remember that event well. My fishing buddies and I were excited. Now we would have access to the creek, early Spring and late Fall.

A long time ago, fishermen who fished in the Smokes, wore a colored badge, pinned to their shirt or vest. That alerted rangers, the fisherman had purchased a fishing license. The badge was about the size of a nickel. The colors changed every year. I don’t remember that. But, I have seen a collection of the badges.

When I moved here, 27 years ago, most of the brook trout streams were closed to fishing. There were a few spots, in the Park, where you could catch them. I had never caught a brook trout in the Smokies, or in Tennessee. I had caught them in other states.

I was working as a volunteer, helping Bart Carter, a park fisheries biologist, with some water sampling and testing in Cades Cove. I asked Bart, “Where can I legally catch a brook trout”. He told me to try Alum Cave Creek. As soon as I could, I was there, and caught my first Smoky Mountain brookie.

All formerly closed brook trout streams in the park were eventually opened to fishing over the years. Some anglers probably take that for granted. More streams were restored to native Southern Appalachian brook trout, and they were eventually opened to fishing.

Do you remember when a “trout stamp” was actually a stamp? In most states where I fished, the trout stamp looked like a large postage stamp. The early ones were printed in black and white. They became a full color stamp gradually, in most states. We would buy our fishing license that was hand written, and buy the stamp. We would lick the stamp and attach it to our license.

I definitely remember selling hand written fishing licenses in our shop. We ordered them weekly from Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). When they arrived, we immediately sent TWRA a check. We posted a bond at the bank, to qualify as a TWRA agent. I think the security bond was $1,500. Paula and I paid for it personally. We still get a tiny interest check, every month, from the bank for that CD.   

What made ordering and selling paper licenses difficult was, ordering the right amount of all the different licenses we sold. Sometimes we ran out of a particular license. Customers were disappointed. There were two other stores selling fishing licenses in Townsend. They ran out too. We were always calling each other, to find out who had what. We sent customers to their store if we ran out, and they sent customers to us. Sometimes we all ran out.

In those days, a trout stamp, was actually a separate trout license that had to be filled out by us.

We became one of the first TWRA agents to get a computer generated fishing license machine. We were a “guinea pig”, a test store. We bought an extra phone line, to handle the transactions using the machine’s modem. That made life easier for us and the customer. Instead of sending TWRA a check, the weekly dollar amount generated was deducted from our checking account, like it is now. One year we sold over $80,000 worth of fishing licenses. That number is lower now, I think. I don’t look very often. More fishermen are buying their licenses online these days.

Writing all of this brings back many fond memories. Thank you for the opportunity.

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

Byron Begley
January 31, 2019

Fly Tying Classes January, February and March 2019 Taught by Walter Babb and Brian Courtney Beginner to Advanced CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com