Little Missouri Fly Fishing

At 4:30 am Sunday morning the bunger valve is still closed. 👍. The Ouachita at Camden is expected to crest at 32 feet on Wednesday, 6 feet above flood stage, will be interesting to see what the Corp does here Monday? Don't think they will dump this water on Camden even though the lake is steady rising and Langley is at 6 feet so lots of water coming down to the lake!!  They have a little dilemma of what to do in order to begin work on the dam and do flood control too.

Fishing has been good the past couple of days. Nice fat healthy fish!!🎣. If you get the chance better enjoy it because it may be another long generation period when they do start back. Looks like you will have to bundle up to fish next week 🥶🥶, yes Jeff it will be 2cold2fish for me!! That's IF they hold water beginning Monday, will try to post as soon as I know they opened up again.

Yep! That's usually what determines the unexpected shut offs. Downriver and even to the Ouachita gets too high and they'll shut it down!

Most unexpected shut down I ever saw was when a stolen vehicle was driven into the river down stream somewhere! They shut it down in a heartbeat!!! 😏

Today at approximately 3:00pm the Corp closed the bunger valve!  Don't know why or for how long but at this posting the river is wadeable. The lake is at 540.64 and Langley is running at about 5 1/2 feet. Only reason I can think of as to why they stopped is Camden hit flood stage on the Ouachita today and the Lil' Mo' was dumping a lot of water in there. Be careful, they might start back at any moment!! 

Thanks Jeff, always glad that you chime in and answer questions that I have no clue about!!🤔🤔. It would be a sad day if you ever quit posting and all your past knowledge of this river was lost. If I ever post anything that you know to be incorrect, please correct it for me!!  The river here is just holding steady at about 540 while all the water from AP comes down. At 5:00 the lower river and the upper river are too high to wade. Still bungering here and Langley running about 6 feet and still rising.

I fished albert pike on Monday- caught a few near the bridge above the swimming hole - on a dry dropper rig -
Beautiful place to fish

Jeff, forgot to tell you.  Bass Pro is opening in Tyler some time soon.  The store manager is a fly fisherman and while they're not going to have a full blown fly shop they will have a good stocking of gear and materials.  He's already contacted the club and suggested we hold some fly tying and casting events at the store.  He's supposed to attend our meeting next Monday also, looking forward to having a fly shop in Tyler again.

Thanks Jeff, good to hear from you.  I really like the upper river and have had exceptional luck along about the end of March and first week or so of April.  I hadn't thought of fishing the feeder creeks but that is great advice.  Apparently the upper river gets more stocking after January up to April.
Hope the New Year is going well for you and hope Sandy is doing well.

Over the decades I've heard about a trout or two being found in the lake. Very likely to become Striper food, though. 

Personally, I've never caught any below Winding Stair. There's also the very likely scenario that fish will move out of the main river and up into the feeders like Blaylock, Brier, Long Creek. And even into the smallest of feeders - I once caught a nice one in a pool about the size of a farmhouse sink below a one foot waterfall! This was probably 100 feet off the river, just upstream of the big Bend Pool above the Long Creek crossing.

Try every incoming feeder for a couple of hundred feet and further in some of the larger ones!   

Mike, when the upper river gets really high and fast apparently a lot of fish are forced downstream.  If they wind up in the lake is it possible that some of them might migrate to the deeper water that stays cold through the summer, thereby surviving?  Asking for a friend. LOL

Looking at the stocking tubes, unless someone is messing with me, I think they stocked on high water on the lower river sometime in the past week. Also this past Saturday there were a bunch of people fishing on the wall and in the skinny water at the park and most of them had fish on a stringer. That's almost a sure sigh of fresh fish.

The lake is at about 540, 6 feet from the 534 target. Bad news is we've already got almost 2 inches of rain and looks like much more to come this week. That will raise Albert Pike and send more water into the lake thus adding more time to reach the 534 target!!  It's just that time of year!! 

Fished Albert Pike last week and caught fish from the upper bridge all the way through Long Creek to the swimming hole. All were in the 6 to 12 inch range, very small!!  Rex (FlyFish) and his brother were also there tormenting the fish 🎣. The fish are small but it's really pretty up there and it is a pull on your pole. That being said, you may go in a few days and not catch a fish. Seems when the river blows out, like it will with this rain, the fish "blow out" also.

Still bungering here on the lower river and still not able to Wade the river!☹️.