Welcome to the Fishing Report from Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. At 4:40 am, the temperature is 66.7 degrees.
It will be somewhat cooler today with a high temperature in the low to middle 80’s. Thunderstorms are likely today. The chance is 90%. Strong gusty winds are predicted in some storms. It will be sunny tomorrow with a high in the middle 80’s and only a slight chance for rain.
August this year has been fairly dry. We have had 2.62 inches of rain at the Knoxville Airport so far. That compares to normal of 3.45 inches, a .83” deficit. Last year at this point in the month, there were 7.5 inches recorded at the airport.
Last year, Tropical Depression Fred arrived in our area on August 17th. Rainfall totals ranged between 2.84 inches at the Airport to 5.16 inches in Townsend. On August 18, 2021 Little River was flowing at 5.32 feet when I wrote the fishing report that morning.
Remember Tropical Depression Fred? I didn’t either until I looked at the fishing reports from last August this morning.
Little River is currently flowing low at 81.8 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 1.52 feet on the gauge. Median flow for this date is 90 cfs. The water temperature is 70.5 degrees this morning.
Most streams in the mountains are flowing lower than normal with some flowing very close to normal. Water temperatures are warm in the low elevations. Fish higher where the water is cooler. Trout are taking dry flies and nymphs. Fish the broken water where the trout are hiding. Terrestrial fly patterns are a good choice, including beetles, ants and inchworms.
Lowland rivers are flowing low, at least for now. Fishing for smallmouth bass, rock bass and panfish is fair to good. Fish in the deeper pools and runs. Try poppers or foam floating flies in the shaded areas where tree canopy is available. Or, use streamers or crayfish patterns.
Fishing with fly gear on the lakes is fair. It may be overcast at times today, which is a good lake fishing condition. Cast to the banks and cover with weighted streamers or swimming nymphs. You might do well using poppers or foam floating flies when the light is dim. The larger fish will probably be deeper. You may get caught in a thunderstorm today, especially this afternoon.
There are generation schedules you can work with on some tailwaters today, especially if you go early. TVA and the Corps will be generating at most dams later this morning or early afternoon. They will be generating all day a Norris and Wolf Creek Dams.
The crew finished sealing and striping the parking lot at the shop and it looks great. I will go to the shop early this morning, as usual, and check to see if the larger part of the lot that was sealed yesterday is dry. I may keep that section closed today and re-open it tomorrow morning.
That area has 40 parking spaces. What we may have left to use today is 10 spaces. Please do not meet your buddies or guide clients and leave vehicles in the spaces today. We can get by with 10 spaces in August, but not less than that. I jumped the curb and parked my truck on grass yesterday and will likely do the same today. We’ll be back to normal tomorrow with plenty of parking for you to use to meet clients and friends.
Traffic is back to a low normal since this weekend, like it usually is in August. Hopefully we will get some rain today, raising the stream levels.
Have a great day and thank you for being here with us.
Byron Begley
August 30, 2022
Respond to: byron@littleriveroutfitters.com
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