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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:54 am, the temperature is 38.8 degrees.
Warmer air has moved into the region. It will be overcast today with a slight chance for showers and a high temperature in the high 40’s. Tomorrow through the New Year holiday will become warmer each day with high temperatures reaching the low 60’s by Thursday. Rain is likely Thursday.
Little River is flowing at 525 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.69 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 312 cfs. the water temperature is 41.5 degrees this morning.
All streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than normal and many are fishable now. Water temperatures are warming and that will continue this week. Melting snow may keep the water cooler than we would expect for a short time. Fishing will improve as the water warms this week. Nymphs will probably work best.
Some roads in the Smokies have re-opened. Laurel Creek Road and Cades Cove Road opened but closed again yesterday afternoon. It appears Little River Road is still closed. Hopefully these roads will re-open today.
Lowland river fishing will be slow for smallmouth bass. Fishing for stocked trout in these rivers will improve over the next few days as the water warms. Nymphs or streamers will work best.
You will find all-day generation at most of the dams in the region today. There may be exceptions as I did not check every schedule. Refer to the TVA site from the links below to see if you can work with the generation schedule on your favorite tailwater.
As expected, many people were visiting the Smokies this past weekend. We had a lot of traffic in town yesterday. With another holiday approaching, weekend getaways to the gateway towns will be popular again later this week. Then, tourism comes to a halt for a couple of months.
Fishing tourists will return when the water warms. Local anglers will be active again. We are in the southern wild trout region, where fishing Spring arrives earlier than it does in the northern states. When the water temperatures in the mountains reach the upper 40’s to low 50’s, and those temperatures are sustained, the Spring hatches will begin and trout will become active and taking dry flies. That could happen in February or March.
We will be ready and looking forward to it.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
December 28, 2020
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
