Little Missouri Fly Fishing

Been a very long time since that happened, but we had the occasion to get to the South Fork area in Colorado in June! It's a long trip for us as we're not going much more than six hours in a day, but Sandy made it OK - her daughter and partner have built a cabin in South Fork, so that's REALLY convenient, to say the least!

At any rate, I did fish every day. Mostly on the South Fork of The Rio Grande, some on Beaver Creek and a little bit on the big river itself. Had to wait for it to come down a bit before I got in it.

All caddis, all the time, by the way. The Unknown Caddis did all my work the entire trip! So here's just a little of what happened. I'll try to sit down and do a full write up for the website before too long I hope!

Mike, when they do open the Bunger as they have been doing, is it 7% or much more?  It would seem that if it's much more or fully open, then 7% all the time would keep the temps down.  Is that feasible?  And what are the wading conditions at that point if you have seen it at that opening.  Maybe they've never had it at 7%.  Confusing.

They have advised me they can't go below 7% due to a vortex or something!!  Hate that. 4% would be ideal I think

To bad they can't leave the Bunger values 3% to 5% open all the time.

The Corp closed the bunger valve at 5:00PM. That was about 3 hours of running cold water, thank you Corp. That was enough to save a few thousand fish. River is wadeable again.

Well, guess I've got to eat crow! Today at 2:00 PM the Corp opened the bunger to flush the river with cold water!!💦. It won't help any past the Pipeline, those fish are gone, but it will help tremendously at Riverside. Thank you Corp or Game and Fish, whoever had the foresight to save the trout!

You don't think they read my last post do you??😬😬🤔🥴😬😬. I'll go to the Corp office tomorrow and thank them.

Two weeks and the Corp has not run any water! Goes to show that they don't care at all about this fishery. I assume that the Arkansas Game and Fish has not ask the Corp for any help keeping the river cold either, they also could care less about the South Arkansas rivers.  There, I've vented!! 

On a happier note, the water temperature at the wall hole is holding around 72 degreese due to the seepage from the dam. Fishing is VERY slow as it always is in August. A dozen seems to be a good day and there is no fishing down river. Last check the water temperature at Hinds Bluff was 85 degrees 🥵.

Will be curious to see what the new trout season in October will bring. Don't know what the Game and Fish will do with them still working on the dam? 

In my opinion, right now when the bunger is closed, there is ZERO flow!  There may be a drop or two from a leak in the dam, but no flow. That's why water is getting hotter and hotter in the wall hole.

Quote from: GORDOB on Jul 23, 2025, 10:16 AMThanks Mike.  When the bunger is closed is there any flow coming into the river from other sources?

Yes Mike, or anybody, does anyone know what, currently, the flow rate on the river is when the bunger is closed? Is it the same as it used to be before they began the work, whenever they weren't generating, or what? Anyone know? I know they still have to be releasing water at the dam from some other valve, but how much?

nm. Sorry!