Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:40 am, the temperature is 54 degrees.

It is going to be sunny again today with a high temperature in the middle to upper 70’s. There is a slight chance for showers.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high in the low 70’s and a slight chance for showers in the afternoon. Rain is likely overnight and up to a half of an inch is possible.

Sunday will be mostly cloudy, very cool, with a high chance for showers. The high temperature is predicted to be in the low to middle 60’s.

Memorial Day will be mostly sunny with a high in the middle to upper 70’s and a low chance for showers.

Little River is flowing at 119 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.76 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 192 cfs. The water temperature is 60.6 degrees this morning.

Streams in the Smokies are all flowing lower than normal. If you go fishing in the mountains today, you will find low flowing streams.

Trout are feeding but they are likely spooky. Fish in the broken water in runs, plunge pools and pockets in riffles. A dry and dropper rig, a single dry fly or a weighted nymph are good fly choices. Stay hidden from the fish. Dress to blend with the forest. Get a good drift. Try Yellow Sally Stonefly patterns for your dry fly. A Neversink Caddis or small yellow Stimulator are good imitations of the Yellow Sally. There are others that will work well.

Fishing for stocked trout in the low elevations rivers is fair to good. Some of these rivers are flowing low. Trout will be found in the runs and deeper pools. Small flies will likely work best. Nymphs, squirmy worms and midge pupa are good choices.

Fishing for smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish is good in the lowland rivers. Due to the fairly low water conditions, fishing will be best in the deeper pools. When the sun is low or in shaded areas, the fish may take foam floating flies or poppers. Streamers, nymphs, crayfish patterns and hellgrammite imitations are good sub-surface fly choices.

This may be a fair to good lake fishing day. It may be a little breezy this afternoon. Since it will be sunny today, I would go early or late when the sun is low. Find shaded areas to fish when the sun rises higher. Cast to the banks or cover with streamers, swimming nymphs, foam floating flies or poppers.

Generation schedules at the dams are similar to what we have been offered lately. There will be pauses in the generation with intermittent pulsing all day. I noticed they will be generating constantly at a couple of dams later today. Tailwater anglers have many options. Visit the TVA website to carefully plan your tailwater fishing day.

Visitors will be arriving to the mountains today to begin the Memorial Day weekend. The lakes will probably be crowded at times this weekend. That may not be the case Sunday due to the expected rain and cool temperatures. This will be a busy weekend for us at the shop.

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

Byron Begley
May 26, 2023

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Parking Tags are now required to park your vehicle inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 15 minutes. Tags may be purchased at Visitors Centers, including the center in Townsend. Or, they may be purchased online. You can buy a daily, weekly or annual tag. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com