If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.

Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 5:29 am, the temperature outside is 68.9 degrees.

It is going to be scorching hot again today, with a high temperature reaching 90 degrees. It will be mostly sunny with a chance for thunderstorm after noon. It will be somewhat cooler the balance of the week. The chance for thunderstorms will increase each day, according to the forecast I’m reading now. High temperatures through the weekend, after today will be in the 80’s. Rain chances range from 40% through 80% this week. I think we’ll get more rain this week.

Little River is flowing at 154 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.79 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 137 cfs. The water temperature is 69.1 degrees at the low elevation USGS site near Townsend, just inside the Park. Yesterday, the water temperature at that location rose to 71.5 degrees.

You should go to a mid to high elevation stream to fish today. Find water that is in the mid-60’s. If it warms above that, move to a higher elevation.

Dry flies and sub-surface flies will work. I would use Yellow Sally Stonefly patterns, Yellow Neversink Caddis, Rob’s Hellbender or a Yellow Stimulator. Also, foam beetle patterns will work for you. We recommend Green or Pink Weenies for sub surface Summer fly fishing in the Smokies.

Other flies will produce, maybe better or maybe not.

Though the water is flowing at normal, normal this time of year is fairly low. Stealth is huge to your success. Try not to let the trout see you. Wear muted clothing, stay low, hide behind boulders and trees. If you do that, you will catch trout. If they see you, you won’t. Of course you have to get a good drift. Try to keep your fly moving at the same speed as the current.

I would choose a backcountry stream. Try Lynn Camp Prong or the East Prong of Little River above Elkmont. There are many higher elevations streams in the backcountry, in every watershed in the Smokies. You will enjoy the coolness you will find on a shady backcountry stream.

Watch out for thunderstorms, rising water and falling tree limbs or trees. Watch out for lightning. I don’t know what you can do if that occurs. I guess you should just do what I do and hope you don’t get struck. So far that has worked well for me.

I had the brilliant idea to go lake fishing yesterday. The forecast this weekend called for clouds and possible thunderstorms on Monday. Jack met me here at the house at 6 am. We launched the boat at about 6:45. It was actually a little chilly when I fired up the motor and we took off from the ramp.

The problem is, the forecast changed. It was sunny all day. The high temperature was 95 degrees. We knew that would be the case but decided to go anyway. We caught a lot of fish, but most were very small. We saw some huge largemouth bass, but they were not interested. We saw a few big smallmouth bass. They were not interested, though Jack caught one fairly nice one.

We caught a ton of little bass. They were everywhere. Some bass were on the beds, spawning. Jack saw a few smallmouth bass spawning. It is way too late for that. This has been a strange weather year, so maybe they are mixed up due to the high lake levels and water being flushed through during the deluge we had a few weeks ago.

Jack caught many times more fish than I did. I could give you a list of reasons why. The two at the top of the list are, Jack is a heck of a lot better fisherman than I am. It’s always been that way no matter where we go or what species we are targeting in fresh or saltwater. Second, Jack is tenacious. He stood on the bow, running the trolling motor all day in the blistering sun. He stopped to eat a sandwich, but that was it. We both used sunscreen.

Finally, at 4 pm, I said, “I’m ready for an ice cold cocktail, when we get home”. He said, OK, and we motored to the ramp. Jack would have fished until dark. During the day, I threw the empty cans of La Croix water and other water bottles into the bilge. When we got home I counted. I drank 48 ounces of water and probably should have drank more.

The fly I did best with was a small, 1.5” long Puglisi Threadfin Shad. I tie them on a #4 Tiemco egg hook. (You can see how to tie them by CLICKING HERE. This is a two-page tying tutorial. At the bottom of page one, click on the link to see page two.) They look like tiny tarpon flies. Nothing else worked nearly as well for me yesterday.

These flies take a long time to tie but they are extremely durable. You can tie a small one in about 30 minutes. A larger one takes longer. I’ve caught about everything on them, including trout and carp. The young of the year threadfin shad are usually that size in June, here. I've used this size in the Fall too and they work well.

When we found spawning bluegill, I used an old Scott fiberglass 4 weight loaded with a BoogleBug Amnesia #10 in the color Solar Flare. We spotted some big beds with bluegill on them. I cast the bug right on one of the beds. A huge bluegill took it. I fought that fish hard. I use 8 pound tippet. That little rod was bent double. Still, the fish was in control, wrapped around a stickup and got off. I got the bug back. I cast to another bed, hooked another smaller, but very large bluegill and landed that one.  I caught other bluegill on that bug. The one that got away was a monster, a trophy! I may start using stiffer rod for bluegill. I have lost too many over the years, because that rod is wimpy. It’s fun though.

Put me in some bluegill, with a popping bug, and I’m happy.

We had a fun day, despite the heat, and I can’t wait to go back.

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

Byron Begley
June 19, 2018

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com