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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:44 am, the temperature is 56.5 degrees.

This is going to be a beautiful day in the Smokies. It will be sunny and pleasant with a high temperature around 81 degrees. The low tonight will be in the low 60’s. Tomorrow and Friday will be sunny and a little warmer, with highs in the 80’s and lows in the low 60’s.

We got 2.33 inches of rainfall night before last and early yesterday. Rainfall this year amounts to 23.77 inches at the Knoxville Airport. Last year at this time that number was 37.35 inches. Normal for this date is 26.27 inches.

All streams in the mountains swelled yesterday. They have peaked and are receding.

Little River is flowing at 249 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.13 feet on the gauge. This is a good fishing level. Median flow for this date is 150 cfs. The water temperature is 63.0 degrees this morning and falling.

Little Pigeon River is flowing at 729 cfs, 2.54 feet, compared to median flow of 279 cfs.
Oconaluftee River is flowing at 425 cfs, 1.77 feet, which compares to median flow of 329 cfs.
Tellico River is flowing at 601 cfs, 2.32 feet, compared to median flow of 134 cfs.
Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 57.9 cfs, 2.37 feet, compared to media flow of 66 cfs.

Fishing conditions in most mountain streams will be good today. Some streams are still flowing quite a bit higher than normal. Water temperatures are good. Trout will be taking dry flies and nymphs or a combination of both. I would use Yellow Sally Stonefly dries or a Yellow Stimulator, with a Green Weenie dropper. If you are fishing a stream that is flowing high, weighted nymphs might work best.

Lowland rivers are flowing good to fairly high. Little River is flowing about perfect in the lower reaches. Use poppers, foam floating flies, streamers or nymphs. Fish the shaded areas where possible later today. You could find stained water entering from small silted creeks.

You can find tailwater fishing options today, with some flows that will be good for wading, especially early. Most of the generation schedules I checked this morning, indicate there will be longer periods of generation this afternoon with more boating opportunities. Visit the TVA website to see what your options are today.

This will be a good lake fishing day, with light winds and comfortable temperatures. I would go early or late when the sun is off the water for better shallow water fishing with fly fishing tackle. Poppers, foam floating flies, streamers or swimming nymphs might all work for you. Find out what the fish want and stick with that. Some lakes could be stained or stained in some areas of the lakes, where lowland creeks enter.

I found an interesting article this morning but I didn’t have time to read it completely. I will later. The article it titled, “The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing” by Domenick Swentosky.  What I read made a lot of sense to me. You can access the article on the Troutbitten website by CLICKING HERE.

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

Byron Begley
June 23, 2021

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com