Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:05 am, the temperature outside is 2.5 degrees. That is not a typo.
Today will be warmer than yesterday, with a high in the upper 30's. Tonight's low will dip into the teens. A serious warming trend begins tomorrow. Expect a high in the upper 40's, climbing to the low 50's on Saturday and possibly 60 degrees Sunday. Rain is expected Monday.
Little River is flowing at 181 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.97 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 281 cfs. The water temperature is 32 degrees this morning.
Most if not all roads in the Smokies are temporarily closed due to snow and ice. You can check the Park's Road Twitter Page by CLICKING HERE for updates and openings as they occur.
You may be wondering if the Park will be closed due to a government shutdown, if it happens. I read one article this morning that stated, the roads in the Park would remain open. But, during the last shutdown, some roads were closed, including the Townsend entrance to the Park. So, I don't know what to expect. Hopefully that won't happen.
Fishing is dreadfully slow. Access to the streams is very limited. I suppose you could park your vehicle and walk into the Park to fish. I don't know why anyone would do that, but some may. Not me.
The streams will warm this weekend and early next week. Next week will be warm. During the last warmup, over a week ago, Little River's water temperature rose to about 50 degrees. If that happens, fishing will be fair to good.
Fair to good fishing would be nice. Spring is just around the corner, right? The long term weather forecast through the end of January looks pretty good. I can't help but be optimistic. I've always been that way.
Our store will be open today. It was open yesterday. I don't know if we had any customers, but the staff was there, just in case. I worked at home.
John, one of our neighbors came by yesterday on his 4-wheeler. He told us we were trapped on our road. We own this 1/3-mile long gravel road jointly. Four homes are back here on 60 acres. The concrete (ramp of death) at the beginning of our road, was and probably still is, a solid sheet of ice. I know from experience, once you start sliding down the untreated ramp, you will end up in the middle of Old Cades Cove Road. If traffic is coming from either direction, it could be bad.
When I worked at the shop, I would use Ice Melt to clear the ramp. I did that for 20 years. We could all come and go. Now, we all just stay home until it melts. That should happen today. I don't buy Ice Melt anymore.
The "Big Chill" is about over and good times are coming.