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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 7:00 am, the temperature outside is 71 degrees.

We got some more rain yesterday. The Knoxville Airport reported .17” fell there. In Townsend, we got .57 inches.

Today will be warm and humid, with a high in the upper 80’s. We have a 30% chance for thunderstorms this afternoon. It is supposed to be cloudy all day today. Saturday and Sunday will be hot with a good chance for afternoon scattered thunderstorms each day. It will continue to be wet Monday and Tuesday.

Little River is flowing perfectly for fly fishing at 212 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.99 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 122 cfs. The water temperature is 70.7 degrees this morning.

While Little River got a good shot of rain yesterday, not as much fell in the Little Pigeon, Cataloochee and Oconaluftee watersheds. Those streams are flowing at near median flow this morning.

It rained in the Tellico River watershed yesterday and last night. Flow there is 263 cfs, 1.54 feet, compared to median flow of 124 cfs.

Stream flows are all what we hope for in July, thanks to the wet June and July, and actually the whole year. Fishing is good.

Guide Rob Fightmaster pulled into the parking lot right after I did this morning. He has a client today who is willing to go early. They should have an excellent day of fishing. It is going to be overcast and the flows are great.

You can use nymphs or dry flies or a combination of both. I would probably be nymphing today, with Hare’s Ear Soft Hackles, mainly because I am tying some at home for our use and I have them on my mind right now. Hare’s Ear soft hackle flies are awesome. But, you could use about any reasonable fly. My second choice today would be a black foam beetle with a Green Weenie dropper. If my soft hackles failed me for some reason, I would switch to a weighted Green Weenie and would catch some trout, for sure.

Lowland river fishing will be good today in most cases. Some may be stained by creeks entering from farms. The streams should be fine after leaving the Smokies. Try Little River from Townsend to Coulters Bridge. Poppers will work for smallmouth bass and other warmwater species.

This will be a perfect lake fishing day. It the predicted cloudy skies turn out to be, as predicted, you can fish with flies all day. Try poppers, Wooly Buggers, Stealth Bombers, Knuckleheads or Dragons. I would also consider using a Puglisi Threadfin Shad.

Some of the trout tailwater generation schedules look fairly promising today, especially if you are boating. And, there are some wading opportunities early today on some rivers. Check the TVA website from the links below, to plan your fishing day on a tailwater.

When I talked to Rob this morning, we were both lamenting the fact that the Corps is generating 24/7 at Wolf Creek Dam. Even the guides and anglers with drift boats have been having a tough year on the Cumberland. Rob grew up in Lexington before moving here. The Cumberland was his home river. And, what a river it is, when it can be floated or waded.

Lake Cumberland is a huge impoundment, one of if not the largest, east of the Mississippi River. When there are wet years in eastern Kentucky, like the one we are having now, that impoundment catches a lot of water, that has to be released.

This morning, the lake level is below full pool. They have cut back on the flows some. So, maybe more anglers will be able to float the river now. If not, maybe they will be fishing there soon. I hope so.

I hooked the largest trout of my life on the Cumberland River once, while fishing with Hagan Wonn. We saw the big fish. The huge brown swam right by his boat, with my tiny midge in his mouth. I was using 6x tippet. I didn’t have a chance. Maybe a better angler would have landed it. I broke the fish off, or it broke me off. Anyway, it got away.  

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

Byron Begley
July 19, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com