Hi Folks,

I hope everyone is in the fishing spirit.  The weather and water conditions are good and the fish are biting.  I fished several times this week including a couple of wading trips at the dam.  The fish at the dam were taking midge pupas and small emergers (size 20).  I caught several nice rainbows on each trip.  There were mayflies and midges hatching on both days.  On the lower river I even saw a few stone flies.  I am seeing quite a few caddis cases in the river, hopefully we will have a good caddis hatch this spring.

One of my clients this week was Jim from Minnesota.  He fished Monday when the weather warmed into the 60's by afternoon and he thought it was great.  Coming from temperatures below freezing up north, it was like a heat wave.  Jim had a good day catching and releasing a lot of rainbows.  The Little Red River attracts people from North, South, East and West and they return because of our great fishery. 

I spoke to the Corps and they informed me that the work that will be done on the dam is a project to put a movable coffer dam system on the lake side of the dam to permit them to work on the flood gates at any time without lowering the lake.  This is not the technical name.....forgot it, but it works by moving this buffer in front of one of the flood gates to stop the water from passing thru the gate when it is open.  This allows the maintenance on one gate at a time.  The project will last approximately 3 to 4 months, closing one lane of the highway for this period of time.  There will be a traffic light at each end of the dam to control traffic.  There will be one day that the highway will be closed across the dam.  The Corp is to notify the public about this date.  A detour on Dry Mountain Road off Highway 110 at Wilburn to Highway 5 at Drasco will be an alternate route.  This project should not affect the flow of the river.

Note:   Please email your federal and state representatives about the proposed cutbacks to the Arkansas trout hatcheries in Heber Springs and Norfork (see February 13 fishing report for details).  This is a serious matter to all who enjoy the fine trout fishing available here in Arkansas and to the economy of this region.

Good Fishing!!

This report is included in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s fishing report. If there is the lake or stream you plan to fish visit the AGFC's FISHING REPORT for current news on other great fishing and recreational areas throughout the beautiful state of Arkansas.