Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:42 am, the temperature is 41 degrees.

This will be the last fairly warm morning for a while. Nights are going to be cold through next weekend, with temperatures falling to possibly single digits Thursday and Friday. Water temperatures will plunge. Fishing will be slow.

Today will be sunny, breezy and chilly, with a high temperature in the low 40’s, dropping to the middle 20’s tonight. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high in the upper 30’s, and a low in the low 20’s.

Little River is flowing at 492 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.64 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 278 cfs. The water temperature is 43.9 degrees this morning.

Streams in the mountains are still flowing high and in most cases, twice the cubic feet per second compared to normal for this date.

Water temperatures are below the trout’s preferred range and they are plunging this morning. Most trout will be sluggish due to the falling water temperatures.

If you go today, stand in safe water casting weighted nymph or streamers. Dress warm. Wind chill factors will be low due to the cold temperatures and winds from 5 to 15 miles per hour, gusting as high as 25 miles per hour. This will not be an ideal fishing day.

You might catch stocked trout in the lowland rivers but don’t count on too much action. If you go, weighted nymphs will likely work best.

I don’t think smallmouth bass will be active today, tomorrow and through next week.

TVA and the Corps will be generating all day at many dams. There are breaks planned at a couple of the dams this afternoon. Check the TVA website to see if there are other tailwater fishing choices you have today.

I was fortunate to help a family from Chattanooga yesterday. Mom, Dad and their three teenage children took up fly fishing a year ago. They are all avid fly angler already, having traveled even to Montana to fish.

I helped one son pick out materials to tie Perdigons on jig hooks. I talked to his mom who told me our fly shop is his favorite. Her son told her our shop has “Southern hospitality with an out west feel”. I loved hearing that. That is what we are always trying to do. They are here for the holidays and we will be enjoying them hopefully often over the next few days.

We are a friendly store because everyone who works here is friendly and helpful. There are nine of us right now, and we all strive to serve our customers extremely well. We are all proud of that.

I read an interesting article this morning on the Hatch website written by Todd Tanner called, “Simple Nymphing”. What he wrote made a lot of sense to me and I think you should read it by CLICKING HERE.

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

Byron Begley
December 17, 2022

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com