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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:48 am, the temperature is 70.7 degrees.

The weather forecasts keep telling us there is a good chance for rain this week. The same dialog continues but I have not seen or heard a thunderstorm yet. Anyway, there is a 50% to 60% chance for thunderstorms and showers today with a high temperature in the middle 80’s. The forecast is about the same tomorrow and Sunday. Another weather website puts the chance for thunderstorms at 100% today but lower tomorrow.

Little River is flowing at 119 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.68 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 131 cfs. The water temperature is 67.6 degrees this morning.

All streams in the mountains that have USGS gauges are flowing slightly below normal except Tellico River which is still flowing slightly above normal. Water temperatures are warm in the lower elevations. Fish higher where the water is cooler.

Dry flies and nymphs are working. A foam beetle or other terrestrial is a good dry fly choice. Drop a small bead head nymph or Green Weenie off your dry. Trail a floating or sinking ant behind your dry.

Stealth is absolutely essential to your success. The streams are flowing low and trout are spooky. Dress to blend with the forest and stay low. Fish the broken water where the trout are hiding.

Lowland rivers are flowing low, which is normal in July. Go early or late unless it is overcast or fish the shaded areas of the river with poppers or foam floating flies. It should be overcast today. A lot of people are tubing on many of these rivers. Move further downstream where there is less tube traffic.

There are many tailwater fishing options. If you are wade fishing, go early. The generators will be turned on later today at all the dams I checked. If you are boating, you have more options. Visit the TVA website to plan your day.

It will be mostly cloudy today which is a good condition for lake fishing with fly rods. You might find yourself out there in a thunderstorm so be prepared for that. Winds will be light except for maybe in one of those scattered thunderstorms. Cast to the banks with poppers, foam floating flies, streamers or swimming nymphs.

I guess there is a chance for rising and stained water today in some watersheds. If you see that happening where you are fishing, I would get out of the stream and wait to see what happens. Otherwise, this will probably be a good day to be fishing.

Our new Popper Making department on the online store is seeing more action. I suppose this department has moved up in the search engine indexes though I have not checked lately. We shipped some popper making supplies to Oklahoma yesterday. There is more work to be done but I think this will be a very popular department over time. You can see it by CLICKING HERE. You can also click on the tutorial, describing how to make poppers from the text in the department. It is a lot of fun to do, you don’t have to be a great fly tyer to do it, and these poppers are effective and durable.

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

Byron Begley
July 9, 2021

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com