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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:50 am, the temperature is 68.4 degrees.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms moved through the area yesterday and last night. In Townsend, rainfall amounted to .71 inches at a gauge near our house, while a personal weather station in town reported 1.42 inches.

There is a chance for more showers and thunderstorms today. Locally heavy rainfall is possible. It will be cloudy with a high temperature around 80 degrees, dropping to the middle 60’s tonight. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and warmer, with a fair chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Little River is flowing at 154 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.82 fet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 126 cfs. The water temperature is 67.8 degrees this morning.

Most streams in the mountains are flowing near normal. Water temperatures are warm in the low elevations. Fish higher where the water is cooler. Dry flies and nymphs will work for you. This is a good time to be using terrestrials. Floating bugs that mimic beetles and other land based insects are a good dry fly choice. Drop an ant pattern or Green Weenie off your dry fly. Though the streams are flowing near normal for the most part, they are flowing low. There are exceptions. Stealth and good fly presentation are essential to your success.

Lowland rivers exiting the mountains are flowing near normal though Tellico River and maybe some others are flowing higher. Normal flows are low in July however thunderstorms can affect water levels temporarily and cause staining. Fish the deeper pools and runs with poppers or foam floating flies. Switch to streamers or crawfish patterns if the top water flies are not working. Nymphs may produce too. It will be cloudy today, which is a very good condition, especially if the river you are fishing has little to no tree canopy.

Generation schedules vary on the area tailwaters. Most will be pulsing only this morning then begin constant generation later today. It appears generation will be ongoing with one unit at Norris Dam beginning early this morning. Check the TVA website from the links below to see what tailwater options you have.

Winds should be calm and it will be overcast, which makes for a perfect fly fishing day on the lakes. Hit the banks with poppers or foam floating flies. Switch to streamers or swimming nymphs if the top water flies are not producing for you. Be on the lookout for approaching thunderstorms, especially this afternoon.

Try the popper or foam floating fly routine on the ponds but be prepared to switch to streamers or swimming nymphs. And, watch for those scattered thunderstorms.

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

Byron Begley
July 20, 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