Little Missouri Fly Fishing

I've been holding off going there until stocking begins... I figured they were all gone.  Are all the surviving trout going to be at the Riverside Picnic area?

As I noted earlier I had texted Ryan Gary,our assigned trout biologist for the Little Missouri, asking if we might get any Browns stocked this September like we did last September?? Also if we might get stocked with Rainbows early this year.  I just got his reply as follows: 

“Hey Mike! I’m still overseeing things on the Little Missouri, I’ll check over with Jim Hinkle to see what they anticipate but if I had to guess it would be no. We had a big flood a month or two ago and lost a good amount of stocking size fish so I’m not sure if any would be make it down early.”

That’s not the response I had hoped for!!  Doesn’t sound real promising for this years stockings!!😬😥😥.

Yep! Looks like zeros across the board! 😉

They’re pretty good about sticking to that…

It’s only another month until a new trout season opens on the Little Missouri, but I warn you people who are making plans for your fishing trips, they never have stocked fresh trout on time!!  It seem it’s always around the first of November before they put fresh fish in the river. Last year about this time they did put a load of 8” brown trout in at the park. I haven’t caught a brown trout in over 8 months!  I think they are all eaten by the big population of large mouth bass we have in the river or just wash away down river. I will try and advise you as soon as I know they have stocked fresh fish this year. I texted out trout biologists Ryan Gary and asked if we might get stocked early this year but haven’t heard back from him.

The lake is down almost 13 feet from pool stage!!  Now that it’s cooled off and the high demand for electricity has eased, it would not surprise me if they didn’t generate for a while. I’m sure people on the lake are bitching about the low water. None on the schedule for next week. At least it’s cooled off and the water temperature in the river should remain ok.

The fishing has been really slow the past few weeks. There are still a lot of fish at Riverside park but conditions have to be just right to have a good day fishing. Need a north wind, a rising barometer, a sustained ripple on the water, and some kind of Gnat, Midge or Mayfly hatch to excite them.  Still having some luck on Griffins Gnats, sliders, other various dry flies, and sometimes on squirmy worms.

Have to pass this “funny” along to you, best one I’ve heard in a while. It seems most times I go to fish, someone is there bait fishing and keeping a stringer of trout. There is a lot of that recently. A few days ago I was advising a family of 6 at the Riverside ramp, with lawn chairs set up, fishing worms and power balls, and a stringer full of bass and trout, that what they were doing was illegal.  That this was a catch and release area, barbless hook, and artificial bait only. Just as it said ON THE SIGN they were sitting by!  The man looked up at me and said “ oh no, we read that sign, but we paid an extra $30.00 dollars fee at Walmart and the lady told us for that we could keep all the trout we wanted”. 🤣🤣.  I like to never have convinced him that wasn’t so, but they quit and went to Hinds Bluff where it is legal to bait fish, just no fish to be had. I felt bad for them because the felt they had paid the “keep trout” fee and got robbed. I’m sure the lady at Walmart misled them when she sold them the trout stamps.

There have been quite a few people fishing lately, just not a lot of catching. Hopefully that will change in a few more weeks.

Thank you for the update!  I can't wait for cooler weather!