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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:32 am, the temperature outside is 23.4 degrees.
The temperature this morning will be today’s high. Tonight’s low will dip into single digits. Tomorrow and Saturday will be similar, highs in the 20’s and lows around 7 to 9 degrees. Then, it will warm some this weekend, especially Sunday. Next week will be much warmer.
Little River is flowing at 159 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.89 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 345 cfs. The water temperature is 32 degrees at the USGS gauge site. That is the lowest temperature that can be recorded there.
Well, fishing in the Smokies is pretty much out of the question. The trout are hunkered down. They don’t need food. Their metabolism has slowed to a crawl. They are not burning calories.
If you plan to go fishing today, reconsider. Wait until next week. Fishing may be slow next week too, but you will be more comfortable trying. If you fell in today, or tomorrow, I’m not sure what would happen. You would not have long to find out. Keep an extra set of warm clothes in your truck, just in case you do. And, don’t fish far from your truck. Actually, not going is a better choice.
If you tie flies, this is the perfect time for that hobby. Tying flies is fun and rewarding. You are preparing to go. Preparing to go is almost as much fun as being there, especially when you have a big fishing trip planned. Maybe you have several big fishing trips planned this year.
There are also those last minute fishing days to be prepared for. You’ve got to be ready for them. I keep most of our fly rods rigged and hanging on the wall in our boat house. Our lake fishing fly rods are ready to go, and laying in our boat. When it is time to go fishing on the lake, I push the boat out of the boat house, hook it up to my truck and go. I do start the boat engine before we leave. When we arrive at the lake, the engine is still warm and ready.
Trout rods and gear are in one spot. We can be on a trout stream in a few minutes.
Even our saltwater outfits are rigged and ready. We take them to Florida, rigged. They hang on a rod rack in my Suburban, going down and coming home. I hate looking out at the bay when we arrive, and know I have to spend time rigging. I want to go fishing right then, when we arrive or at least the next morning.
We do have to unload our kayaks and associated gear, and put them in the water. After that, the kayaks are ready to go, the entire time we are there. We have a two-week Florida trip planned again this year. I can’t wait. The house we rent is on the bay, a few steps away from the dock and the kayaks.
I think I’ll just work for a few days. There is not much else to do. I’m going to the shop often, photographing flies. Then, I come home and load them into my computer, to be prepared for the website. I think I have about 100 more flies to add. Some have multiple photos, from different angles. You can see the progress so far by CLICKING HERE.
I think about, talk about, and write about fly fishing most of my waking hours when I’m in this mode. That is my job and I’m happy to be here doing this.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 4, 2018
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |