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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:14 am, the temperature outside is 17.4 degrees. The temperature in Maryville is 22.3 degrees while in Alcoa the temp is 22.5 degrees.

The Knoxville Airport reported 1.8 inches of snow yesterday.

It will be cold today and extremely cold tonight. A warming trend begins tomorrow. By the weekend, we will see high temperatures in the mid to upper 50’s to low 60’s, with lows in the upper 30’s to the mid 40’s. Monday and Tuesday will feel like Spring, with highs in the 60’s and lows in the 50’s.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED HIGHS AND LOWS TODAY

Little River is flowing at 359 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.40 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 283 cfs. The water temperature is 37.6 degrees this morning.

Stream temperatures are very cold, ranging from 33.6 degrees at Cataloochee Creek, 36.3 at Oconaluftee and 37.6 in Little River.

Trout become sluggish when water temperatures fall to the 30’s. Their metabolism slows and they don’t need much if any food to survive.

The streams will be warming, beginning tomorrow and continuing through the weekend and early next week. The long term weather forecast calls for warmer days and nights, and on some days, it will be very warm. Fishing will improve soon.

I think fishing will be very good soon. When water temperatures rise to the mid-40’s, then climb to 50 degrees, and that temperature is sustained for 3 days, Spring fishing will begin. Aquatic insects will be hatching. Trout will be feeding on them. We will be enjoying great fishing again.

Some Park roads are closed today, including Cherokee Orchard, Little River Road from Townsend to Sugarlands, Laurel Creek, Cades Cove and Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road).

I worked on my computer 10 hours yesterday starting at 5:45 am. At 4 pm, I decided to do my daily workout and take a shower. I checked the registers at the shop remotely, to see how much business we did yesterday.

We did absolutely no business. I called the shop to find out if our computers were not working. My call was forwarded to Daniel at home. The store never opened.

I did know we were going to open late because traffic was slow in Greenback, and I posted that on the fishing report. Someone posted the same thing on Facebook.

We can afford to have a day without sales. That is no big deal. What is a big deal, is letting customers down. I would do anything to keep a customer happy. I have worked my whole adult life, trying to keep customers happy. And that has proved, for 45 years, to make businesses successful.

If you drove to the shop and found us closed, I am truly sorry. That will not happen again.

Unless we have a true blizzard or ice storm, and I can’t get out, we will be open. My Suburban is heavy, it has 4-wheel drive and great tires. We live 10 minutes from the shop.

Unless I am out of town, hospitalized or worse, we will be open.

I can only remember the shop being closed twice in 24 years due to bad weather, before yesterday.

Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.

Byron Begley
January 30, 2019

Fly Tying Classes January, February and March 2019 Taught by Walter Babb and Brian Courtney Beginner to Advanced CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com