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P.O. Box 505
Townsend, Tennessee 37882
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Beautiful River in the Great Smoky Mountains



The Fishing Report 06/26/18 Great Smoky Mountains National Park and East Tennessee
Time of Readings 6:15 am Eastern Time Zone : CFS=Cubic Feet Per Second
Fishing Gauge Indicating Fishing is Good
 

Water Temperature Little River
Stream Flow
Sunrise
Sunset
Rainfall 2018 YTD Knoxville Apt
Rainfall Normal YTD Knoxville Apt

 

66.9 Fahrenheit
1.92 Feet 190 CFS
6:21
8:56
25.25"
24.53"



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Townsend, Tennessee - Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina

If you do not see today’s Fishing Report, please refresh your browser to empty your cache.

Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:15 am, the temperature outside is 67.3 degrees.

Thunderstorms are likely again today. The high temperature will be in the mid-80’s. More thunderstorms are in tomorrow’s forecast. Some storms may be strong to severe.

Little River is flowing at 190 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.92 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 120 cfs. The water temperature is 66.9 degrees at the low elevation USGS gauge near Townsend.

All streams in the Park that have USGS gauges are reporting flows above normal this morning, but not too high to fish at all. These flows are what we like to see this time of year.

Fishing is good in the Smokies. It will be healthier for the trout your release, and fishing will be best at mid to high elevation streams. Hot days will return by the weekend. Water temperatures will rise to 70 degrees or above in the low elevations. Find streams with midday water temperatures at 65 degrees or lower. There are plenty to choose from.

The East Prong of Little River above Elkmont is a good choice. Lynn Camp Prong is another.

Foam beetles and other top water terrestrial flies are good choices right now. Also, any Yellow Sally Stonefly pattern in size #16 will work. It is hard to beat a Green Weenie for a sub-surface fly. The pink version of the Green Weenie (Barbie Bug) works well for brook trout and rainbows.

You may do well with other dry flies and nymphs. The trout are hungry and active. They are looking for food.

Be stealthy! If the trout do not see you, your fishing success will be much better. You need to get a good drift too. If your fly is moving at the same rate of speed as the current, you will do better. Trout are used to seeing food drift with the current. If your fly is moving slower or faster than the current, that signals to the trout, something is wrong.

Getting a good drift is not always easy, all the time. The high gradient streams in the Park, with many conflicting currents make it difficult. Anglers who keep their flies drifting well, catch more trout.

Scattered thunderstorms are in the long term forecast today through July 10th. The chances vary day to day, from 40% to 80%. That is normal during the Summer. You should not be surprised if the stream you are fishing becomes temporarily stained and in some cases, rising quickly. But, due to the scattered nature of these storms, you may be able to move to another drainage and find perfect flows and clear water.

Scattered thunderstorms are beneficial to keeping our streams flowing well during the Summer months.

Fishing is good on the tailwaters, for trout and smallmouth bass. Check the TVA website to see their generation schedules and go if you can work with their flows.

Jim and I launched the boat on the lake at 6:30 am yesterday and fished until 1 pm. Fishing was fair. Fishing was best early, before the sun was beating down on us. We caught largemouth bass and bluegill. We were using small Puglisi Threadfin Shad and Weighted Wooly Buggers to catch the bass. We used BoogleBug Amnesia #10 poppers in the color Solar Flare for the bluegill.

Most of the bass were small though I did catch one we guessed weighed 3 ½ pounds. That means, it probably weighed 2 ½ pounds. He grabbed my Wooly Bugger and we were fishing in an area with a lot of submerged timber. I was using a 7 weight fly rod with 8 pound tippet. I put maximum pressure on the fish to keep it from tangling in the limbs. I was lucky to land that fish.

Jim caught a really big bluegill on a BoogleBug, on a flat with stickups everywhere. He had to fight that fish hard too, to finally land it. We used a landing net for that fish. Jim released it. We released every fish we caught.

All of the rods in the boat had 8 pound, 3X tippet attached to tippet rings on the leaders. I won’t use anything lighter than that when fishing for bass or bluegill. I also use non-slip loop knots to tie on my flies. That gives them more action.

The sun rose and the fishing was over. The wind picked up, we could see thunderheads forming, so we headed for the ramp. It was a fun few hours.

Cloudy days are perfect for lake fishing with flies. Cloudy days are perfect for all freshwater fishing with flies, including the streams in the Smoky Mountains. I love cloudy days.

When there is a high chance for thunderstorms in in the forecast, I usually fish within a mile or two of the boat ramp, on the lakes, just in case.

Fishing conditions are going to be good for the most part this week. Go if you can.

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

Byron Begley
June 26, 2018  

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com 


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USGS Stream Gauges

 
 
 
 
Abrams Creek Below Cades Cove    

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Lake Information and Tailwater Generation Schedules

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fontana North Carolina
   

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