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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:45 am, the temperature is 68.5 degrees.

A small thunderstorm dropped .85 inches of rain in Townsend at the Fox Hollow Road Weather Underground Station, while only .21 inches fell at Kinzel Springs. I talked to some guys at the shop who were fishing on the Middle Prong of Little River, and said it poured heavy rain briefly there.

It will be warm today, in the upper 80’s, with sunshine early and scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. We can expect warm days with a higher chance for thunderstorms every day this week. It looks like Thursday and Friday will be wet, with a very high chance for thunderstorms both days.

Little River is flowing at 127 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.71 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 114 cfs. The water temperature is 67.8 degrees this morning.

The mountain streams that have USGS gauge sites are flowing at normal or slightly above normal. Rain affected several rivers yesterday, but not much.

The streams are warm in the lower elevations. Fish where the water is cooler in the middle to higher elevations. I would fish at Elkmont and above, Lynn Camp Prong, or Abrams Creek. You may want to drive to some of the high elevation streams as an option. Will told me the upper West Prong of the Little Pigeon was fishing well last week.

Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. A dry fly with a nymph dropper is a good choice. Mine would be a small Yellow Stimulator dry, with a Green Weenie dropper. Terrestrial dry flies are also a good choice. Try a foam floating beetle, or any other beetle pattern. You can trail a floating or sunken ant behind the beetle. The beetle will be your strike indicator if you can’t see the ant. Or watch for a rise near the beetle.

Many lowland rivers exiting the mountains are flowing at normal, which is fairly low in late June. Fish the shaded and deeper areas in these rivers with poppers and foam floating flies for smallmouth bass, rock bass and other warmwater species. Streamers and swimming nymphs might work too.

Generation schedules at several dams in our area are similar to what we have seen lately, short periods of generation (pulsing) early, then longer periods in the afternoons. If you plan to fish on a tailwater, check the TVA website and plan your day accordingly.

If you are planning to fish on a lake today, go early when the sun is off the water. It is not supposed to be windy today. You may find yourself running for cover later, when thunderstorms are active later today. It may be windy in thunderstorms and you will probably get wet.

I would start with poppers or foam floating flies. If that does not work, switch to streamers or swimming nymphs fished fairly deep and slow. When fishing for smallmouth or largemouth bass, my favorite streamer is a large, weighted, black Wooly Bugger. I also use weighted dragonfly nymphs and they work great for many species, especially larger bluegill or shellcrackers.

Fishing with dragonfly or damsel fly nymphs in lakes or ponds can be very effective. I call them “swimming nymphs”, because they swim. Small olive Wooly Buggers work well when fish are taking these nymphs but I normally use a more realistic pattern tied in several colors, including black, olive, chartreuse and rusty orange.

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

Byron Begley
June 28, 2021  

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com