Little Missouri Fly Fishing

Thanks for the update! If anyone wants to know, the Lower Mountain Fork at Beaver's Bend State Park is pretty dead right now. In fact, it's the worst by far I and others have seen in these past 14 years or so. There's been a confluence of bad events: drought conditions, lake turning over, very thin stockings, I think residual from the hatchery kill-offs in the recent past. So, for now, no good river trout fishing close by that I know of. As Mike said, that should start to change pretty soon, but currently that's how it is.

Thanks for the update, been staying up on the caddo this week, hoping the little Mo would get stocked this week. Have to go back to south Texas Friday, so I guess no trout fishing for me this trip.  I have been catching bass on the South Fork of the Caddo.

"Hi Mike! Thanks for the update. Sorry for delay since your last text- been out of office in the field. First stocking at Narrows will be in November sometime. Sounds like temps are good. First AP stocking will be the last week of November. Little short on numbers still in Nov/Dec, but plan to be back to 100% numbers in January."

The above is a message I got from Mrs Graham. Looks like November before we get any fish on the Lil' Mo'.  The good news in the message is that she feels they will be back to 100% operation by January after all the stocking problems she had last year. 

River is in good shape, except no fish. We are getting a little bloom of algae because the water is low in the river from no generation in past weeks. At least the temperature is holding around 60 degrees all over the river.

Will post up as soon as I know they have stocked.

It's the start of the catch and keep trout season, one problem, there are no fish in the river!!  What the poachers didn't get last season the otters did!!  The last 5 times I fished here ( have not fished here in over a month) I got skunked, zero, no fish! 

The water clarity is good, the water temperature is in the 60's and it finally turned cold this past Friday. This morning the air temperature is 40 degrees on the river. They are still working on the dam!!  We are in a severe drought, we have only had 1/2 inch of rain in the past 74 days. The lake is the lowest I've ever seen it thus, there is no generating schedule for next week😩😩.

Considering all the above I've heard nothing about stocking but it could happen tomorrow?? I'll keep you posted here as soon as I know anything. There is plenty of room in the river for fish since it is currently "empty water". Let's hope the Arkansas Game and Fish is beginning to solve the stocking problem from last year, I haven't heard anything.

It's been a long hot summer on the Little Missouri River.  The water condition on the river has been great for fishing all summer, just no fish!!!  I'm not gonna say there are no fish in the river but they are as scarce as hens teeth. It has not been worth fishing for months now. What fish the pouches didn't get, the otters did!!  We have developed a real otter 🦦 problem on the river and they are hard on the fishing.

They are gearing up to begin working on the dam again. I counted 4 huge crains, lots of barges and about 50 men working constructing the barges at Sawaha today. They have the lake pulled down 10 feet at this point, preparing to tackle the trash guards on the dam gates again. Can't say what that means for generation on the river this fall. Water temps on the river are great right now, staying around 58 degrees at Riverside and 65 at River Ridge. All we need are fish stocked to enjoy it.

I do not know what the prospects are for stocking this year, not even sure if we will get fish stocked on the Little Missouri River in October like we should. As soon as I know anything, I'll pass it on to you. It's still a "pretty little river ", just not as "fish functioning" as it used to be, but neither are the other rivers in Arkansas due to the hatchery problems the state has had. I think they are working on correcting the problem but only time can solve a lot of the problem.

Hey, it's a hot one these days and hope you're getting a fish every so often!  Been keeping an eye out as usual and I doubt any fish would be left after the poachers and the summer heat!  Just wanted to say I sure enjoy any info you send out, even if no news is all there is, knowing your out there swinging a fly every so often is good news... anyone been on the lil mo lately

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.