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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:48 am, the temperature is 69.3 degrees.
It will be cooler and cloudy today with a high temperature around 80 degrees. We have a good chance for thunderstorms today, tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night.
Rainfall yesterday amounted to .56 inches at our house, while at another personal weather station closer to Townsend reported .40 inches.
Little River is flowing at 124 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.70 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 122 cfs. The river is currently rising slowly. The water temperature is 69.1 degrees at the Townsend gauge.
Other streams in the mountains were affected by rain yesterday and last night. Little Pigeon River is flowing below normal and receding. Oconaluftee River is flowing slightly higher than normal and receding. Cataloochee Creek is flowing at normal. Tellico River is flowing high and rising at 1,300 cfs, which is a record for this date.
Fishing in the mountains should be good today, depending on where you go and how much rain falls in some watersheds. Wherever you go, there is a chance you may find stained and higher water. Or conditions could be fine. Nymphs may work best but dry flies could produce too. Fish in the higher elevations where the water is cooler.
Most lowland rivers exiting the mountains are flowing near normal, except of course Tellico River. It will be overcast which is a benefit. Try poppers or foam floating flies for smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish. If that is not working, switch to streamers or nymphs.
Generation schedules at our area dams vary greatly today. There are tailwater wade and boat fishing opportunities on several tailwaters. Check the TVA website to determine what your options are.
Thanks to overcast skies, this should be a good lake fishing day. On the other hand, you might get caught in a thunderstorm. Cast poppers or foam floating flies to the banks. Switch to streamers or swimming nymphs if the top water flies are not producing.
The same is true if you are fishing on a farm pond. Watch for approaching thunderstorms.
I found a good panfish fly fishing article on the Fly Fisherman Magazine website this morning. I don’t have time to read the entire article now, but I will later. You can read it by CLICKING HERE.
I love fly fishing for bluegill, shellcrackers and other panfish, especially when they are taking poppers or foam floating flies. If you want to catch the larger “bull” bluegill during the hot months, you may need to fish using sub-surface nymphs. My favorite is a Rubber Legged Dragon. I tie them in several colors and they are weighted with bead chain eyes. My favorite colors are rust, black, olive and chartreuse. I cast, let the fly sink, then retrieve slowly. Vary the speed of your retrieve to see what the fish prefer. They work on sunny days too, when the larger fish are not interested in poppers or other floating flies.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
July 19, 2021
WALTER BABB MADE BAMBOO FLY RODS FOR SALE – CLICK HERE
Walter is selling a selection of over 50 bamboo fly rods. All but one was made by him. The other one was custom made for Walter by Walton Powell. Read the description of each rod on the list and contact him if you are interested in buying one or more than one. Even if you are not interested in a purchase, this web page is very interesting to read. Walter has made over 285 bamboo rods over the past 20-years. You will be working directly with Walter on a purchase and you can test cast the rods before you buy one at his home. Or, call him and he will ship a rod to you. His contact information is on the web page he and I created.
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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