Little Missouri Fly Fishing

Nothing new here at all!!  Haven't posted in over a month, so I must have something to report?🤔🤔. No new work is being done on the dam. My understanding is that they will come back and replace the trash rack they just put on one gate with a newly engineered, better one!  Don't know when that will be, maybe you know?

The Corp has stayed with the SWEPCO posted generation scheduled times. Not much generation happening, wish it was a little more so as to keep the water cold down river. A few days ago, after 5 days of no generating, the water temperature at OFS was 78 degrees. Those trout that are left down there won't last much longer. If you like to eat trout it's a good time to keep trout at Old Factory and River Ridge because the higher water temperatures will kill them off in the next month or so. A few might survive longer in a deep hole at River Ridge, but not many. Water temperature in the Riverside park area is staying plenty cold to sustain the trout, I checked it a few days ago and it was 56 degrees.

The fishing has gotten really slow, as is expected this time of year.  The fish at OFS and RR seem to have moved to the top of those respective pools and are few and far between anywhere else. Hinds Bluff has been fished out!! You might get lucky and catch one or two there but that's it!! Fishing at the park is sporadic!! It's beginning to look like a long fishless summer here.

Good morning, Ardis Peace and I arrived at Hinds Bluff March 18 about 1030 to find several people already fishing and catching, so it looked like a good day. We fished most of the day and caught fish. Ardis, who had not fished in 3-4 years actually netted a very big nicely colored 14.5incher. Over all it was a great day to be on the River. It was my first time back since last April.

Yesterday I arrived at Hinds Bluff about 0945 to find no one else there. I saw no fish movement, but decided to give it a try anyway. It only took about 4 casts to get into fish. And yes there are still some really nice sized and colored fish at Hinds Bluff. David, who I have seen on the river many times over the years and his last name escapes me, arrived a few minutes later as well as 2 bait casters. David went to the rock just below Butt Buster and I was set up at the point where the little creek normally flows into the river.

It ended up being a great day with many fish caught. Once again the fish seemed to be at the point where the creek flows in to about 50ft downstream and 20ft upstream of it. I caught fish on chartreuse and white mini jigs. White seemed to be the more popular of the two.

I think the fish yesterday were consistently the largest and strongst fighters I have caught in a long time. The colors were also beautiful. Yes there were a few small stockers, but overall they were nice healthy chunks.

David did tell me that he had fished Riverside earlier and found no fish at his favorite spot, but there were some at the Wall Hole.

Hopefully the river will continue to renew and thrive. Unfortunately this was probably my last trip to the Lil Mo until the fall.

Stay safe and have a great Spring and Summer, John D

Mike,just happy we found out what took place April 7th. Your information was spot on net pens hatchery did not stock.
The information that we had came from the spring river hatchery, they step up and stock April 7th in 3 locations. We good brother have a blessed day, ps leave us a fish or two.

I was wrong and Dennis was correct, we did get fish stocked on 7 April at River Ridge, Riverside, and at Hinds Bluff. I guess there are just so many fish in the river that I couldn't tell🤗🤗. I'm gonna make Dennis my new number one source if he will forgive me for questioning his information.

It's been a while since I posted, but until now there's been nothing to post!! So, here's the latest.

I texted with Christie Graham yesterday because I'd been told to look out for fresh stocked fish and I couldn't find any?🤔. She told me the last stocking here was on the 18 of March and that will be the last stocking of the season!!😢😢. No stocking in April and of corse none in May like there use to be years ago. We can't gripe, so far it's been a really good season, considering what I expected it to be, with lots of nice fat BIG trout in the river and they are still there!! The fishing here is still really good, you just have to find the fish. Get out early!!

The water temperature is holding good because on the generation they have been doing. Also they have stuck to the schedule posted by SWECO, that's why I quit posting it here. The water clarity is excellent coming from the lake. Nice to have generators back operating, rather than bunger valves!! 

Again Mrs Graham thank you for all you and yours did for this river this trout season. I know with all the problems you have had it would have been easy to just write us off for the year, but you didn't!!  Many thanks from all of us down here on this forgotten river. 👏.

Also, on March 17th Albert Pike received their last stocking of the year. I fished it last week and caught some really nice trout in the swimming hole, above the low water bridge and below the low water bridge.

A tidbit of info, according to Mrs Graham the AGFC stocked 11830  trout on the lower river and 2000 trout at Albert Pike. That's a far cry from the number of fish we use to get. But hey, we are thankful for what we got, maybe next year will be a better year.

Looking forward to the AGFC last stocking in April, hope to make one last trip in little Mo soon.

This is great to hear. thanks for the update!

 Here are some texts I received from Mrs Graham when I texted her and asked if they had stocked here lately. That was on Wednesday.

""Thanks, Mike. Yes, River Ridge was stocked Tuesday and Hinds Bluff was stocked yesterday. ""

""AP was stocked last Friday. They plan to stock the remaining Narrows sites soon. The hatchery also has extra fish, so they expect all sites and AP will get an extra 1000 fish each later this month.  ""

Looks to me like it's setting up to be one of the best years on this river in the past few years.
When I asked where she got EXTRA fish with all the hatchery problems here's her response: 

""They aren't "extra", per se. When the Jim Collins Net Pen gets fish each year, they expect a certain amount of "loss" (some fish will die before being stocked). This year, the conditions were great and they lost next to nothing, so those fish that didn't die are now available for stocking. ""

""All the fish you are getting this year started at Greers Ferry, then transferred to Jim Collins at 9 inches average in December. None from Spring River at all. ""

It's nice to have someone with the AGFC that will supply us with information. THANK YOU CHRISTIE!!

Grateful to hear.
Maybe Albert Pike got some also.

I fished today for first time since last Friday. I caught some really nice fat fish at RR and HB, so I'm convinced they stocked in the past few days. Don't know if they stocked all sites, but they did those two!! 

The water is still really muddy from all the rain we got. Got 7 inches in one day, 3 inches of it in one hour!!  The river was rolling!!  I'm sure that scattered the fish. Also they ran one generator yesterday evening and they have generation schedule for the next two days. That will scatter the trout some more. Fishing should be really good the next week or so.