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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:41 am, the temperature is 61.9 degrees.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms moved though the area yesterday afternoon. Rainfall in Townsend amounted to .57 inches. Other weather stations reported lower amounts, Cades Cove .25 inches, Cosby .10”, Gatlinburg .29” and the Knoxville Airport got only a trace.

Today will be sunny with a high temperature in the upper 80s, with a low chance for thunderstorms. It will be hot tomorrow with a high around 90 degrees and a low tomorrow night of 70 degrees. There is a good chance for thunderstorms Tuesday through Thursday.

Little River is flowing at 176 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.90 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 133 cfs. The water temperature is 66.0 degrees this morning and falling.

Little Pigeon River is flowing fairly high this morning, at 625 cfs, compared to median flow of 314 cfs. Most streams in the mountains are flowing at about normal today. Water temperatures are warm in the low elevations and they will be warming further over the next few days. Fish in the higher elevations where the water is cooler.

A dry and dropper rig is a good choice. Try some type of terrestrial imitation for your dry fly and drop a small bead head nymph or Green Weenie trailing behind and deeper.

Most lowland rivers flowing out of the mountains are flowing at normal. Little Pigeon River is flowing higher than normal. This river might be a good choice today. There may be others flowing higher. Smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish can be caught in the deeper pools and runs using poppers, foam floating flies, nymphs, streamers and crayfish patterns. I would go early or late or fish shaded areas where tree canopy is present.

You have some tailwater fishing options today. Turbines at several dams in the area will be off or pulsing early, then turned on later this morning or this afternoon. You can plan around these schedules. Visit the TVA website from the links below to see what your options are.

Lake fishing will be best early or late when the sun is off the water and there is less pleasure boat activity. I would launch at daybreak. Poppers or foam floating flies may work. Fish the shaded banks where game fish are more likely to be shallow. Be prepared to go deeper with streamers or swimming nymphs. Watch for baitfish on the surface early or late. When the sun is high they will be deeper and who knows where?

Will and I are almost finished adding the fly tying materials and tools we sell to our online store. I started this project over a year ago, then took a pause for a few months to develop better ordering and website maintenance protocols. Now, we are running that department very smoothly. We have checked the inventory periodically to make sure we have what our computer inventory thinks we have. Unless you order more than we normally stock, you should get what you order. Professional fly tyers and guides sometimes order more that we stock. We ship what we have and order more to fulfill their needs if that happens. We are constantly adjusting the number of items we stock, to keep our fulfillment rate high and our customers happy.

I am planning to go through the department today, to find more items to add to the online store, if they exist. Then, we will be adding only new items we decide to stock.

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

Byron Begley
August 8, 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