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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:46 am, the temperature is 23.9 degrees.

Today will start sunny before rain moves in this afternoon. The high temperature will be in the middle to upper 40’s today. Rain may turn to snow tonight, then back to rain later. Tonight’s low will be in the middle 30’s. Rain will continue tomorrow and into the night with a chance for snow showers again.

Little River is flowing at 474 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.60 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 298 cfs. The water temperature is 39.4 degrees this morning.

Streams in the Smokies are flowing above normal. The streams are cold. Fishing is slow.

Try weighted nymph rigs, fished deep where the trout are hunkered down. You might catch a trout or two.

Lowland river fishing will be slow due to the cold water temperatures. Fish the areas of these streams that are stocked with trout using nymphs. It is possible to catch stocked trout though they will be lethargic.

Tailwater fishing opportunities are very limited in east Tennessee today. TVA and the Corps will be generating all day at many dams. I didn’t look at every schedule so check yourself, on the TVA website from the links below. Maybe you can work with their schedule on your favorite tailwater.

Fly fishing on the lakes will be slow. Most warmwater species are sluggish and deep.

I talk to some local anglers in town, who are crappie and walleye fishing now and they are doing well using conventional tackle. Winter is their favorite time of the year to fish. Crappie fishermen buy calf tails in a wide selection of colors from us to tie their jigs. I devote space in the fly tying department for them. They lose a lot of jigs so they are always tying more during the cold months.

Right now, our selection of colored calf tails is depleted. We are out of several colors. More are on the way. The crappie fishing enthusiasts will be happy when they arrive from Wapsi.

You can’t believe what you read on the long term weather forecasts but I can’t resist looking at them and hoping for warmer Spring-like weather. What I am seeing now does not look very encouraging. I’m not concerned because the forecast will probably change dramatically by the middle of February. I do see overcast conditions, rain and snow predicted. We should have a wet couple of weeks ahead.

Will and I are going to spend the day photographing fly tying materials and adding them to our online store. I shot a ton of photos yesterday of Loon UV coatings and lights. They will pop up on the online store today.

Product photography is not that easy to do. It is time consuming. Most of the time is spent color correcting, alignment and getting rid of the background. We use up to three huge wireless flash units, with soft boxes that are about 30 inches across to light the subject and the background. We have two older professional grade Nikons in the studio. We shoot everything using manual settings.

The shop is looking great. Dave A is going to stain the new fly display late today. We are ready for Spring fishing, when it finally arrives.

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

Byron Begley
January 30, 2021  

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com