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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:53 am, the temperature outside is 71 degrees.

It is going to be warmer over the next few days. Highs will be in the upper 80’s with lows dipping to the high 60’s to 70 degrees. We have a low chance for rain today and tomorrow. A higher chance for showers and scattered thunderstorms returns Wednesday and Thursday.

Little River is flowing at 311 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.26 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 129 cfs. The water temperature is 68.2 degrees this morning.

Little Pigeon River is flowing higher than normal at 567 cfs, 2.23 feet, compared to median flow of 290 cfs for this date.

Oconaluftee River is flowing at 392 cfs, 1.70 feet, compared to median flow of 323 cfs.

Tellico River is flowing well at 233 cfs, 1.45 feet, compared to median flow of 121 cfs.

Cataloochee Creek is flowing at 87.2 cfs, 2.50 feet, compared to median flow of 65 cfs.

As you can see, we have great stream flows. Fishing has been and will be good for a while, thanks to the rain we have been getting in the mountains.

Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. The fish are hungry. Their metabolism is running high. If you don’t spook them, and you present your flies well, you will catch trout.

Any reasonable dry or nymph will do. A good combination right now is a black foam beetle with a Green Weenie dropper. But, many other patterns will produce. One of our young customers, (younger than me) who has been visiting here a long time had a great day yesterday. He told me he is still using an Elk Hair Caddis with an olive body. He said I recommended that fly years ago, and he has stuck with it. I used to tie mine with chartreuse calf body hair over the wing so I could see it better. What a great fly that is.

I think the lowland rivers will be fishing well for smallmouth bass. Flows are good. It is supposed to be mostly cloudy today. Tie on a popper and have at it! Lower Little River and Little Pigeon River are excellent smallmouth bass streams.

Lake fishing should be good today, for those of us who use fly rods. Again, it should be mostly cloudy, which is a huge benefit. When it is cloudy, we can fish all day. Poppers, Knuckleheads, Stealth Bombers and streamers will work for smallmouth and largemouth bass. Poppers and Dragons will work for bluegill and shellcrackers. I would use Dragons or Wooly Buggers for yellow perch.

Let’s see what the tailwaters look like today. The Holston below Cherokee Dam looks good this morning. They will be generating later this morning and all day after that.

The Caney Fork below Center Hill Dam will be flowing high.

The French Broad below Douglas Dam will be fine early, with intermittent pulses until this afternoon. Then, they will be generating there.

TVA is sluicing at Norris due to heavy localized rainfall, until further notice.

They continue to run generators around the clock at Wolf Creek Dam in Kentucky.

Check the TVA website yourself, from the links below before you go.

You do have some good choices today. I hope these afternoon scattered thunderstorms continue. This has bee a good July for many anglers, though it got hot for a few days.

I have been struggling to tie Prince Nymphs. I’ve been tying them for decades without a problem. This time, I’m tying them on shorter jig hooks with a heavy tungsten bead in several colors. Tying in the goose biots on the tail, with the jig hook inverted has been a challenge for me. This fly will ride with the hook up, and that thing gets in the way when tying patterns upside down.

I’m sticking with it though and I am improving. One is a Prince-Prince nymph, tied with purple goose biots and a purple bead. Trout anglers are learning what bass fishermen figured out a long time ago, purple is a great color for trout flies. I know, because I order all the fly tying materials, every week. Trends don’t go un-noticed by me and I react by changing the numbers on what we stock. Purple is trending up, no doubt about it.

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

Byron Begley
July 15, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com