Little Missouri Fly Fishing

The river is dryer than I have ever seen it .  There is no flow, ZERO, coming from the dam. I can see rocks I’ve never seen before.  I’ll try to explain what the very defensive lady at the Corp office just told me!!  They are repainting the bridge and working on the trash catchers on the dam. When I asked about water flow she said the contract was for 3 months, but they could be finished sooner!!😬😬. Did the government ever finish anything on time?  I was told there would be no generation or water flow until the contracts were finished. I asked about the pollution from them scraping the bridge she said they would be putting down tarps in the river bed to catch the cleaned off materials. I asked if there would be any periods of generation or the fish might die, she said “better the fish than the people “!!  What ever that ment. 🥴🥴. I said I wish they had done this during the summer and not during trout season and she said “we get people here when we can, we really don’t have any control over that” (she was very defensive on everything ).

I don’t really know what this will do to the river??  Never seen it before. Don’t know if the Game and Fish will stock any more fish under these conditions. If the do, they will be stuck where they put them. At least it’s cold weather so water temps should not be a problem, unless we get a big rain. This explains why they generated earlier, to get the lake down as much as possible before the crews started. Oxygen levels in the remaining deep holes could get to be a problem.

Not looking good for this years trout season, and not what any of us wanted to hear. If I find out more, I’ll post it here. Fish were not biting at all yesterday, don’t know if it’s because of this or not.

Ah, I see your current update this morning.

We’re they running all three units the last 72 hours? Might have been some sort of testing… SWEPCO wouldn’t have had that on their schedule.

Mike, you think the cold weather may have them spooked on demand for electricity?  SWEPCO or the Corps?  Lake's still down so it doesn't seem to be a high water problem.  Who knows?

Thanks for the info, Mike.  We hadn't planned on fishing this weekend but if we were, I would have been somewhat irritated to find the river unfishable after a 2 1/2 hour drive. 
SEARKJim

Not much fishing to be had Monday thru Friday of this week. Prime time is about the only option available. Who knows why they are generating, the lake is now down 12 feet from its 548 pool stage. The CORP. knows!! 

The fish that were stocked last week were already really scattered and will be even more so after this week. Most of the fish were the 12 inch stocker size but a few chunky 14 inches that were ahead on the food chain in the growing tanks. Having had only one stocking the fishing is slow, but you can get a pull on your pole if you stay at it. It is my opinion that the guy driving the stocker truck lied to me when he said they stocked Old Factory Site!  I have yet to catch a fish there and I’ve walked it from the weir to the catch and release area just past Charlie Halls house!!🥵🥵. Maybe I’ve just lost my touch but I can’t find the fish. Haven’t tried down river from the weir, but surely all of them didn’t wash over the weir when they were stocked on high water?? 

Hopefully we will get a second stocking next week and the catching will pick up.