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Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 6:58 am, the temperature outside is 61.7 degrees.

It is very foggy this morning but that will be gone soon. Today will be mostly sunny, warm and pleasant. Just like yesterday, the humidity will be low. There is no chance for rain today.

Little River is flowing at 279 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 2.18 feet on the flow gauge. Median flow for this date is 117 cfs. The water temperature is 64.9 degrees this morning.

All streams in the Smokies that have USGS gauges are flowing above median flow for this date.

You could not ask for better fishing conditions in July. Flows and water temperatures are perfect for this time of the year.

Fishing is very good. Glenn came by yesterday. He had been fishing in the Park and reported unbelievable results. He was smiling ear to ear. He caught most of his trout on nymphs. He did say, though the park was crowded, he did not see any other fishermen. We did not see many people in the shop that were going or returning from fishing.

Still, we were very busy. Yesterday was a good day at the shop. July has been a great month.

I would probably use nymphs today, at least early on. Good choices are Green Weenie, Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear, any kind of soft hackle and many other patterns. I would probably switch to a terrestrial dry fly with a Green Weenie dropper later this morning.

In our area, I would fish the East Prong from Metcalf Bottoms to Elkmont and above. To avoid swimmers and tubers, a hike up the Little River Trail above Elkmont is a good idea. The Middle and West Prongs of Little River, Thunderhead Prong and Lynn Camp Prong are all excellent choices.

Lowland river fishing is good thanks to the higher water. Poppers and floating foam flies will work for smallmouth bass and sunfishes. I would be out there now, fishing Little River below Townsend. When the sun is high later, fish the shaded banks.

The lakes will be crowded so go early or late.

TVA and the Corps are running generators full bore at many of the dams. You might work in some fishing on Clinch today. Check the TVA website from the links below below before you go.

Rain is back in the forecast beginning Tuesday. That is good news. If August turns out like July did, there will be many happy Smokies fly fishermen. The first eleven days of August look good on the long term forecast, with cool days and nights, and a good chance for scattered thunderstorms each day.
 
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.

Byron Begley
July 28, 2019

Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com