July 31, 2009 | FISHING REPORT - LITTLE RED RIVER
UPDATE; 7/31/09: SWPA just posted their water release schedule for the weekend. They flushed the river today with seven hours of generation and got rid of the muddy water from the recent 3" rain. Saturday, the plan is to release at 1:00 o'clock pm until 10:00 o'clock pm. This means you can wade all morning at JFK Park, until 2:30 pm or so at Cow Shoals, until around 4:30 pm at Winkley and until about 6:00 pm at Libby. This pattern is scheduled to continue for Sunday and Monday as well. Fishing is excellent on the Little Red! Little Red Fishing Report: July 28, '09 Water releases at Greers Ferry have been predictable and tourist-friendly. When the lake rose above top power pool last week (461.94 feet above sea level) due to a heavy rain event, the Corps of Engineers (COE) executed late morning or early afternoon releases. This meant lots of time to wade fish or boat the Little Red in safety and comfort. Now that the lake level is back down to "pool", releases are only occurring mid afternoons for an hour or two. I hope this protocol continues into the fall season.
The dissolved oxygen level in Norfork Lake has fallen below the state standard of 6.0 mg/l. This is not an unusual event at that lake. The vents on their turbines have been opened in order to add more oxygen to the water coursing through the dam. Our dissolved oxygen content, however, is a healthy 8.1 mg/l with an average water temperature of 54 degrees fahrenheit.
Last week, I wrote about the Bull Shoals improvement project being conducted by the COE starting August 1st. The plan is to install enhanced fish habitat in the catch and release area below the dam. Since their facility would need to be shut down most mornings for the work to be accomplished, I expressed concern that Greers Ferry might be used to make up for the lost hydropower. It appears that my worries were misplaced. One of the top professionals at Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA) told me the other day, that there are 18 dams under their control and that more than six of them have lake levels higher than Greers Ferry. Those higher lakes are more likely to be used throughout August and September to make up for lost hydropower from Bull. Whew!
I'm not seeing quite as many aquatic insects buzzing around the river as in previous weeks. A few caddis and lot of midges are the bulk of what's "coming off". Our guides report similar sightings with the occassional and small blue winged olive mayfly hatch about 1:00 o'clock most afternoons. The best dry flies to try include adams (#18), bwo (#18-#20), elk hair caddis (#18-#20), hopper pattern (#10) and midge (#22-#32 cream or black). Sub-surface patterns that are working include sowbug (#14-#16 tan, smokey olive, uv tan or peacock), chronic (#14), zebra midge (#16-#22 red, copper or black), red @ss soft hackle (#14-#18), San Juan worm (#14 red, hot pink or worm brown), copper john (#14-#16 red, green or copper) and woolly bugger (#8-#12 black, olive or brown). You may want to try a  hopper pattern with a zebra midge dropper (Dave's Hopper pictured). This "hopper-dropper" rig is proving very productive at most shoals on the Little Red. This is hopper season. A hopper pattern (fly) represents a grasshopper and a zebra midge represents a chironomid pupa (midge) of which there are millions in our river. Use the hopper as your strike indicator and put your zebra 12"-18" below. I know of at least one angler that caught a trout on each fly at the same time. It took him 10 minutes to untangle his line but it was a hoot.
Your friendly, neighborhood, national trout hatchery stocks rainbow trout in the Little Red every month of the year. There are 12 locations on the upper 31 miles of our river where this stocking occurs beginning at JFK Park all the way down to Ramsey Access. There are approximately 8,000 trout per mile in our river. The hatchery stocked 24,535 trout in our river in April - 31,135 in May and 31,318 in June. I don't have the figures for July but it will be in the thirty thousand range. If you have never toured our first-class hatchery, by all means, give it a go. It is inside JFK Park below Greers Ferry Dam. You can wander around the facility on your own and ask questions of any of the professionals working there. There must be a million rainbow trout in the hatchery raceways!
Speaking of JFK Park, good customer and friend, John David Stanley of Stuttgart, Arkansas was fishing there early on the morning of July 25th. He was apparently hunting for a large  trout since he was using his seven weight fly rod and 0X leader and tippet. About 6:15 am, something large lunged at his streamer fly and the fight was on. John was a proud angler as he released the 34 inch long brown trout! It was a heavy male with a hook jaw weighing 15 pounds plus. John did not actually weigh the fish for fear it would harm it. There is a photo of the big fish on the blog section of our web site. Hats off, John!
If you have questions about anything in this report, direct them to me at the Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs, Arkansas. My numbers are #888-442-4022 toll free or #501-887-9988. You can also send an e-mail to me. I'm Little Red Jed Hollan, mgr. <*))))><
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