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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:49 am, the temperature outside is 10.8 degrees. That sounds cold, but yesterday at this time, the temperature was 2.5 degrees. That was cold!
The high temperature yesterday rose to 38 degrees. Much of the snow in the lower elevations melted. Still, some back roads are slick. Our county schools remain closed today.
Today will be sunny with a high temperature near 50 degrees. Tomorrow, through Monday promises highs in the 50’s and near 60 Sunday. It will be warm Monday with rain expected.
Little River is flowing at 193 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.01 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 297 cfs. The water temperature is 32 degrees this morning.
Fishing is slow due to the cold water. Trout do not need food when the temperature drops into the 30’s. They are hunkered down for now. We will see the water temperatures warm over the next few days. Watch for the number 44 degrees or warmer. When that happens, the trout will become more active.
The long term weather forecast through February 2nd looks fairly good. Expect high temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s through the period. Lows will dip into the 20’s most nights.
I have been writing this fishing report, almost every day for over 10 years. I look at the weather conditions and water temperature every day. I used to go to the river every morning and take the water temperature, before the USGS began showing those numbers to us online. I still can’t make a conclusive prediction of the water temperatures over the next few days. Maybe I should have kept a log all those years. All I know is, fishing will improve. I also know, if the water temperature reaches 50 degrees, fishing will be good. We’ll see what happens.
Most roads in Great Smoky Mountains National Park are still closed due to snow and ice. That will be changing soon. You can see road openings as they are announced by reading the Park’s road Twitter page by CLICKING HERE. There, they announce road closures and openings almost immediately as they occur.
If Congress allows the U.S. Government to shut down, nobody seems to know if the Park will close. The higher ups have not given orders to our Superintendent. Hopefully it won’t happen. If it does, maybe the Park will not close. I found a good article on the subject on the WBIR website. You can read it by CLICKING HERE. This article describes shutdowns in our past, and the affect it had on the Park.
I am always looking for interesting articles for you to read. I search the internet every morning. I found one this morning that caught my eye, and I want to share it with you. It appears on the American Angler website. The article is titled, “What Trout See”. You can read it by CLICKING HERE.
I knew trout did not have eyelids. I’ve never seen a fish wink at me. But, I never thought about the possibilities of injuring their eyes during the fight, landing and release, until now. That is something I took from this article, and I plan to be more careful in the future.
I’m going to spend most of the day at the shop, photographing flies for our online store, and watching the snow melt in the mountains.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
January 19, 2018 Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
