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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:51 am, the temperature is 21.2 degrees.
It will be sunny and cool today with a high temperature in the low to middle 40’s and a low tonight in the middle 20’s. Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer with a high in the low 50’s and a low around 30 degrees.
Little River is flowing at 1,150 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 4.42 feet on the gauge near Townsend. Median flow for this date is 309 cfs. The water temperature is 42.1 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the Smokies, especially those on the west side of the Park are flowing high. Some on the east side are flowing lower and closer to normal. Water temperatures are chilly and will remain that way for a while. Trout will be lethargic. There is a chance you could catch a post spawn brown trout in some streams. Nymphs will probably work best for you. You might also try streamers that resemble small trout or sculpins. Be careful. Many streams are swift.
Lowland rivers are flowing high, especially on the west side of the mountains. Smallmouth bass fishing will be slow. Catching stocked trout could be attainable, using nymphs, mop flies, squirmy worms or egg patterns.
TVA and the Corps will be generating non-stop at some dams with fairly long breaks later today at others. Check Cherokee, South Holston and Watauga Dams. There may be other tailwater fishing options so visit the TVA website from the links below to see what is going on at your favorite tailwater.
I found an interesting article on the Fly Fisherman Magazine website this morning, written in 1994 by Dave Whitlock. The topic is “Fishing Sculpins”. You can read the article by CLICKING HERE and you should. Sculpins are an important food source, especially for larger trout and other species. After reading this article, you might find more sculpin fly patterns in your fly boxes.
In the early 90’s, I spent a lot of time doing volunteer work for the fisheries department at Great Smoky Mountains National Park with other volunteers from the Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Much of the work we did was shocking streams to collect trout population data. One of the sample sites was Little River in the Metcalf Bottoms area. I was always amazed at the number of sculpins we captured there.
Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) is located near our home. The non-profit organization takes in orphaned or injured cubs, nurse them to be young adults and release the bears near where they were found. You can’t visit the ABR cub facility. You would not be able to find it and they don’t allow people to enter. The bears are raised with very little human contact.
Last year, ABR released 10 cubs back into the wild. You can visit the ABR website by CLICKING HERE. If you decide to make a donation, you can find out how to do it on the site.
The University of Georgia won the NCAA College Football Championship last night by beating the University of Alabama. Paula and I watched the first half and went to bed at 10 pm when Alabama was leading. We would have loved to have watched the entire game. It was a “hard fought” game by two great football teams.
Remember, we get up at 4 am every morning so I can write this fishing report. We have missed a lot of good college football games.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 11, 2022
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Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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