Little Missouri Fly Fishing

After the early morning bite go away, is the any bream or bass action.??


I know there are a lot of bream and bass in the river because I catch them while trout fishing. Don't actually fish for them so can't say how the "action" would be if I did. 🤔🤔🤔.

As of 5:00 am on 20 July they are still doing a little minimum flow, that's 7% open on one bunger valve. The water temperature at Riverside is 54 degrees 🥶🥶. For me, wet wading is out of the question!!  There is a lot of "bottom of the lake" silt in the river because the bunger valve pulls right off the bottom of the lake.

I went to River Ridge and Hinds Bluff yesterday just to check them out. The water temperature at both was 55 degrees. Old factory site was at 57 degreese, it's great to see the water temps holding this far down river with this minimal flow. Too bad there are no fish left down there to enjoy it!!  I fished about 15 minutes at each place and never got a bite!!  Don't waste your time down there. The water clarity is a little better as you go down river. The silt tends to fall out of the water as it flows down river.

There are still fish at Riverside, just hard to catch!!  They definitely don't like the silt. You must get your depth and your drift correct just to get a bite. It's never great fishing this time of year on the Lil' Mo', no stocking going on and the leftover fish have been poached, mishandled and killed, or just washed away down river. The Game and Fish could stock if they knew the Corp was gonna continue the minimum flow🤔🤔. Lots of luck!!!

The minimum flow has been going for 3 weeks now and it hasn't affected the lake level at all. If they were doing this same flow through a generator it would be perfect. Continual cold water with no silt and great trout river fishing.

Got out this morning at 6:30 am and fished until 9:30am. The water temp was 58 and with no bunger open for a couple of days and the seepage from the dam, the water  clarity had cleaned up nicely. I caught fish at the wall hole and the meat hole.

When I got up from my nap at 4:00pm they had started the minimum flow again (7% out of one bunger valve) and the silt is back in the river. I have deduced that the fish just don't like to bite with all that "bottom of the lake" floating around in the river 🤔😱. Not much can be done about that.

Faired fine from storm. Small blow and 4 inches of rain. We needed the rain, only have had 3/4 inch rain in past 28 days before the storm. On a sad note, I fished yesterday, after the storm and now with no water flow, and I got skunked!! Fished from 6:30 to 9:30 am at wall hole and David's rock and did not get a bite!!!  Don't know what the deal was, just lost my touch I guess. Gonna give them another chance today.

A little off subject, but I was wondering how you faired from the storm last night?  Hope all is well for you, Mike.

As of 6:00 am the Corp is still running a minimum flow on the Lil' Mo'. I went to the Corp office yesterday to tell them they have the bunger valve tweaked just right for fishing on the river. They advised the bunger was running at 7% capacity and they planned on keeping it that way for a while!!  What ever a while means??🤔🤔.

At any rate, its kinda like big water fishing. I did notice the water clarity had worsened a little, must be picking up a little silt off the bottom of the lake. The water temp is holding at 54 degrees at the park, haven't checked down river lately. Maybe some fish have washed down to River Ridge??🥴. I fished yesterday and caught about a dozen, that's summer time fishing!! 

‼️ At 5:00 on 9 July 2024 they have STOPPED the minimum flow?  Don't know why or when they will start back.

As of 10:00am the Corp still has one bunger valve about 10% open. It is fishable!!  About 9 inches of David's Rock is out of the water, you can use that as a gage🤣🤣. When David's Rock is totally underwater I'd call that un fishable. I caught a few fish this morning in the minimum flow, you just have to get your fly down.

These conditions could change any second but they have held this same flow since yesterday afternoon at 2:00 pm. The water temperature at the park is 54 degrees and the water clarity is good!!  Don't know if this is the beginning of the lake pull down so they can work on the trash racks, or just the river flush I asked for🤔🤔. Enjoy it if you get the chance, it's not often you get to fish a "flowing Lil' Mo'.

It's Saturday morning at 5:30 am and no water running on the Lil' Mo'. Last year I could still find fish at River Ridge, not this year. The water temperature is above 82 degrees from the pipeline downstream. That's the bad thing about no generation, no cold water gets down river. The other bad news is the poachers!!  The fish have been wiped out at Sycamore run by the renters of the Trout House. With no flow on the river the worm boxes and powerball bottles the bait chunkers litter lay on the river banks longer, you can tell they have been there!!  This past Wednesday I circled thru the park at noon, just before my nap 😴, there was a man and his boy with 8 nice trout laid out on the handicap side walk, fishing worms to get there other two!!  He was a local, he knew he was breaking the law and didn't care!! This happens all the time, thats where the fish go during the summer months. I have run off a half dozen poachers in the past month and I'm only at the park a couple of hours a day.

The Riverside park area is the only place with any fish now and it has slowed down to a summer trout fishing pace. Still enjoyable but a slow bite after the sun gets on the water.

1 July 2024.  Seeing lots of dead fish in the river!!  The water temperature is ok at the park but the oxygen level may me getting bad?  They really do need to flush the river. Nothing new on any dam repairs.


‼️ WOW, someone up there is reading my post! Just got up from my nap and there is a little minimum flow going on the river!!!!  Just right, at this minute, for a cold water oxygenated river flush!! 

Hang on to them,Mike.  We will be back soon.  Last time we were at L'Mo you had gone to Norfork.  We had fair to good fishing for 2 days and one super evening prime time with small drys.

Jim, I have not seen you and Judy in a year!!  Hope you are both doing well??  I have some flies that I tied for you over a year ago!!!