Little Missouri Fly Fishing

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!☹️.

Thanks for the update!  Can't wait to get back on the Little Mo.

On 3 February 810 fish were stocked at Albert Pike. This information was provided by Mr. Dillon Hann. Lower river still running full, un fishable ☹️.

At 9:30 am they opened the bunger valve. River is not wadeable!!  The lake is at 545 feet.  It will take at least 21 days to get the lake back to the target level of 534 feet. Gonna be another long dry spell for fishing on the lower Lil' Mo'. We all knew it was coming.

I would like to give the Corp 3 atta boys and 2 thumbs up 👍👍 for not opening the bunger valve until the fly festival had ended!!  Also a big thanks to all the people who worked so hard to put on the festival and to the ALTO fly fishing club. I think it was a huge success.

Thanks Mike.  I really enjoyed visiting with you this past weekend, great to see you.