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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. Pretty sunshine is hiding the fact that it is COLD outside. The weather is supposed to warm a little today up into the 50's. The forecast for the next week looks like much of the same. Sunny with moderate daytime temperatures and cold at night. It is the overnight lows that really make the water temperatures drop.

This morning the streamflow gauge on Little River is giving a reading of 1.79 feet or 132 c.f.s. This is below the daily normal of 215 c.f.s. Water temperatures are a cold 36.7F.

Checking this streamflow gauge is important this time of year. The link to it is always available lower down on this page. Scroll down and click on the one that says Little River Townsend. The first graph is the water temperature. This information is going to be your best indicator of fishing conditions. Once the temperature drops below the 40F mark fishing is VERY slow. The trout's metabolism slows and they just don't need to eat that much. Being cold blooded they also get very lethargic.
If you see a warming trend on the graph that is going to mean better fishing. It doesn't need to be any specific temperature it only needs to be warmer than it was.

We have had several days of cooling water temperatures. That is making the fishing in the Smokies tough. If you go, fish nymphs deep. Don't be afraid to add split shot unti you are bumping the bottom. Look for sunny pools where the sun has had a chance to warm the water even the slightest bit.

Yesterday was our first Fly Tying 101 class of the winter. Dave had them tying up wooly buggers. These FREE two hour classes are a great introduction if you have been thinking about whether or not you want to try fly tying. Once you discover how much you are going to love it then you can always come to one of our regular, full day Beginner Fly Tying Classes.

The time is coming to the end for our TU Trout in the Classroom tank. It has a home at a local school for the Spring semester. Having it here has been a lot of fun and a good learning experience for us. It was interesting to see the process of the eggs hatching into the alvins and then how quickly they look and act like tiny trout. As soon as we let them out of the basket they immediately found the current and staged up. Where they would hang out really illustrate trout location in the streams. Some of the fish would stay in the top 6 inches or so of the water. We figure those are the dry fly eating fish. There was a large void in the middle of the tank where some fish would move through but there wasn't a large population. Down at the bottom is where the vast majority of the fish would be. Those are your nymph eating fish. I would say almost 3/4's of the trout stayed down close to the bottom. This is even more true in a real trout stream where the majority of the food is down there clinging to the rocks. The little trout did learn quickly that when Paul lifts the top off it is time to eat.

Where to go fishing....Kris came in over the weekend and said that recently he had been down to the Hiwassee River and did well. It is a tailwater so check on generation schedules before you drive down there. A hint...the dam release you are looking for is actually Apalachia Dam not the Hiwassee. The Hiwassee is a big river but it fishes more like a freestone stream than other tailwaters in the area.
The Clinch looks to be running water all day. It may be good if you have a boat to float it. South Holston Dam is turned off today.

Sometimes the trout on the delayed harvest streams don't seem to care as much about water temperatures. There is a delayed harvest on Tellico River and also Paint Creek. You can find out more information about trout stocking and delayed harvest streams HERE on the TWRA website.

Chota boots will be back in stock this afternoon! Their shipment finally arrived. Mark Brown is going to hand deliver our order this afternoon. It is great being so close to the warehouse. We are not going to make the post office delivery guy happy today when we bring him a tower of wading boots to ship.

If you go fishing today stay warm! There is still plenty of time to get Christmas gifts in time, especially gift cards! Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.

Daniel Drake
December 11, 2017

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com