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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:46 am, the temperature is 30.9 degrees.
It will be mostly cloudy this morning, clearing later, with a high temperature in the middle 40’s. Tonight’s low is predicted to be in the upper 20’s. We have a low chance for snow, and a greater chance for rain tomorrow with a high in the low 40’s.
Little River is flowing at 260 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.13 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 293 cfs. The water temperature is 40.3 degrees this morning.
Some streams in the Smokies are flowing higher than normal while others are flowing close to or slightly below normal. Water temperatures are cold, ranging from the 30’s to 40 degrees. Trout will be sluggish today. Your best chance for some success would be fishing with weighted nymph rigs. You might catch a trout or two but do not expect good fishing.
Lowland river fishing is slow. You might entice a stocked trout to take a nymph or egg pattern. Smallmouth bass will be inactive due to the cold water temperatures.
You may find angler friendly flows in some tailwaters today. Check the TVA website from the links below to see what options are available to you. I noticed some breaks in the generation at Center Hill, Norris and South Holston Dams. There may be others.
Business continues to be slow at the shop which is normal in January. We all miss the Saturday Winter Free Fly Tying Demonstrations. We have not held them this Winter due to Covid distancing requirements. We are also missing the usual fly tying classes we hold during the Winter months.
More people are learning new fly tying techniques on YouTube. Beginners are learning to tie online. I seriously doubt if anyone is holding person to person classes or demonstrations. Will told me the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show will be held next month and he will be demonstrating at the event. So, maybe there will be more teaching and demonstrating in the near future.
More people are tying flies and people are tying more often. Most of us in the industry attribute that to Covid. We are all wondering how long this will last.
TL, the sales manager at Wapsi called me last night at 5:30 pm, on a Saturday!. That was unusual. He and I have been friends for many years. Wapsi is our largest fly tying distributor, located in Mountain Home Arkansas. I think the company employees about 60 people. Don’t hold me to that as I could have them mixed up with another company.
We talked about business of course. We are in the midst of fly tying season so everyone in that part of the business is busy. Fly tying participation usually falls off when Spring fishing begins. That occurs first in the South, and later in the colder parts of the US.
Fly tying distributors and shops were overwhelmed last year. Social distancing requirements and supply chain issues caused disruptions and lack of availability from our suppliers. Order fulfillment was low. Turnaround time from order placement to delivery was slower.
That seems to be improving. TL told me they are working on weekends to fulfill their orders. Other distributors are probably doing the same thing. They are all showing improvement. We have increased our inventory levels to cushion disruptions and turnaround time on orders from our suppliers.
The big question is, will this end in the Spring? We’ll see!
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 10, 2021
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
