Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. The temperature this morning at 5:14 am is 69 degrees.

Much of the region including East Tennessee is in a significant drought. The drought intensities range from moderate to extreme along the Smoky Mountains. As a result, the streams are flowing very low. Rainfall at the Knoxville Airport for the year stands at 14.97 inches compared to normal of 21.92 inches.

It seems relief is on the way. Thunderstorms are likely today. The chance for rain is 90%. Rain may be heavy at times. It will be cooler too. Today’s high will be in the middle 70’s. A high chance for rain continues every day through the weekend. Temperatures will be cooler with highs in the 80’s each day.

Fishing could improve or the streams could be temporarily blown out in some drainages. What is important, we were seeing water conditions that we normally see in August, in May. Hopefully this predicted rain will soften or end the drought.

We may see high water in some rivers but fishable levels in others.

Thankfully, we do have USGS gauge sites where we can monitor stream flows and possibly pinpoint good fishable water levels.

Though the streams have been flowing low, many anglers are reporting fair to good catches in the Smokies. Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. A dry and dropper rig is a good choice. Use a Green Weenie as a dropper. Yellow Sally stonefly imitations are good choices for your dry fly fishing.

Watch for quickly rising water! Though flash flooding is not mentioned in the forecast, it is possible. If you see the water rising, and it will likely be stained, get out of the river or stream.

Some of the tailwaters have been fishing well. I’ve seen a lot of good pictures so far this week.

I am busy re-stocking the fly tying department. I have orders waiting to be processed that are larger than any so far this year. The reason for this is, I have been off for two weeks and missed three weekly ordering cycles.

Paula and I rented a home on the ocean in Cape Hatteras for two weeks. We were joined for one week by Jim and Pat, our very close friends. They are like family to us. The weather was fantastic and fishing was excellent. We caught mostly bluefish and sharks. The bluefish were large, mostly in the 20” to 29” range.

We were not fly fishing. This was “heavy-duty” surf fishing. The Outer Banks is known for strong surf. We have special surf rods for that area, as our normal gulf surf outfits are too light. My Outer Banks surf rod is 13’ 3” long and is designed to handle up to 12 ounces of weight. Paula has a 12’ rod that can cast up to 10 ounces. Our Gulf Coast rods top out at 4 ounces.

As usual, it is always good to be home.

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

Byron Begley
May 21, 2026

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