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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. The streamflow gauge for the Little River appears to be working again. For a while there I felt like we were back in the 20th century where we had to venture out without all kinds of foreknowledge. Do you remember those days? Having to watch the weather on the nightly news the evening before to see what might happen tomorrow. Packing the car in the dark and heading to the mountains not knowing that an unseen storm had dropped inches of rain on the headwaters of your destination stream. Thankfully we are now blessed with instant weather information and stream flow gauges on many streams.
Water levels in the Smokies appear to be back to normal after the storm Sunday night. The Little River is flowing at 2.27 feet or 295 c.f.s. This is right at the normal flow of 296 c.f.s.
Cold overnight temperatures caused a drop in water temperature. This morning the gauge is reading around 49F. Cooling water usually means slower fishing. I would wait a bit this morning and let is start warming up again.
The weather forecast for today and tomorrow will be nice with temperatures in the low 50's and just above freezing overnight. Rain is coming at the end of the week. The forecast I saw isn't calling for a lot of rain so hopefully it won't change water levels too much.
Fishing today should be pretty good. Water levels are good and temperatures should rise. Heavily weighted nymphs, fished deep will be your best choice. Tungsten bead flies will get down without having to add as much split shot. Otherwise keep adding weight.
There isn't much top water action in the winter. If you do find some rising trout the flies they will be feeding on are dark in color this time of year. Blue Winged Olives aka BWO are one of the main mayflies you might see. They are going to range from #14 on the large size to #20. These mayflies seem to like fairly nasty weather. Wet with spitting snow seems to be their kind of days. You might find some caddis in dark gray to black. There is a tiny black stonefly that hatches in the winter. They are skinny and usually about half an inch long. I would use a dark elk hair caddis as a pattern for them. Dry fly hatches in the winter are not something you can really count on but still, be prepared. It's no fun to find rising fish an not be able to try for them.
This is the last time to fish this year. The last time to fish this decade. It is hard to fathom how quick time passes. 2019 started with floods and then turned to drought. All we can all do is take it day by day and go forward. Forward is what we do. I'm looking forward to 2020. I'm excited for what it will bring. Hopefully more fishing for all of us. I'm thankful for the great guys we have working at the Shop. They make everything possible.
Our Saturday Free Fly Tying Demos start this weekend with Walter Babb and Brian Courtney. Walter and Brian will be tying from 10 am till 2 pm, Saturday January 4th. Just come to the Shop, pull up a chair and be ready for some good fly tying and lots of stories. We will have tyers each Saturday until the beginning of March. You can find the full schedule HERE.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Daniel Drake
December 31, 2019
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com |
