Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:45 am it a 64 degrees out and today should be a beautiful day to be out in the mountains.  Highs are forecast to be a "cool" 85F and no rain.  

Water levels in the Smokies a looking really good.  This morning the gauge on Little River is reading 2.26 feet or 291 c.f.s.  This is quite a bit higher than the normal flow of 70 c.f.s.  Higher water is a good thing this late in the year.

Water temperatures are still a reasonable 64 degrees.  The actual temperature will be lower as you go higher up the watershed.  Still, early morning and evening fishing will be more productive.  If you are going to be fishing through the middle part of the day you will want to be in a high gradient, higher elevation stream.

There isn't much to say about fly selection that hasn't been said day after day.  Yellow stonefly dry flies and maybe change it up with a new fangled attractor dry fly.  As a dropper I would use a Green Weenie (non weighted traditional style in size 12) or any other nymph in the #16 range.  An ant pattern will also make a very effective dropper pattern.

The crowds should be a little less right now.  School is starting back already in many areas.  There is still a lot of anglers on the water along with just people splashing around on the river.  All you can really do is breathe and do you best to keep your head if someone jumps in front or invades your spot with an army of neon yellow airbrushed pigeon forge bought t-shirts.  There is a lot streams out there.  Sometimes it is necessary to pull out the map and look for the thinner blue lines which are going to take a bit more effort.

The International Fly Fishing Film Festival 2023 is coming to Knoxville.  It is sponsored by Orvis.  It is going to be on Tuesday August 15th at 6:30pm at Hi-Wire Brewing in South Knoxville.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online CLICK HERE and it is a fundraiser for Catch the Cure for CF.  If you've never been to one of these film festivals it is great fun and you get to see some incredible short films which are sure to get you hyped up about fly fishing.

I better wrap this up so I can get the Shop open.  Stop by....cast some rods...

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

Daniel Drake
July 24, 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