It’s Cold Out There

Bundle up for some winter time angling

By FISHING REPORTS

By Jim Harris, AGFC

Eric Antrim from Fresno, California, came to the Little Red River to fish with guide Mike Winkler. Eric was stripping streamer patterns and going after brown trout on a recent cold winter day when he landed this nice Little Red brown trout.

Winkler relates that “brown and yellow Double Deceiver patterns were on the menu and the fish were liking it.”

The temperature earlier this week was prime for catching trout several of Arkansas’s favored streams, with good reports coming from the White River around Cotter and at Calico Rock and below the Beaver Lake Dam, too. Wednesdays storms might have muddied up water but most expected it to be cleared up by the weekend.

The Little Red is prime also for wading anglers using the AGFC’s access points, according to our sources from Fish ‘N Stuff in Sherwood. Without major power (heating) needs in the region with the mild temps, the Southwestern Power Administration has not been generation much at Greers Ferry Dam; flows on Jan 18-19 were just 20 cfs at the dam. The Fish ‘N Stuff guys recommend wading and throwing small Rooster Tails or a small Rapala Countdown in sizes 1 or 3. A tiny maribou jig also works. The low water, they said, is more conducive to landing rainbows, but obviously there is a brown bite, too. The water is stained where the creeks run into the river, but the rest of the Little Red was mostly clear earlier this week.

Lake Monticello Update

After a two-year project of rebuilding the lake habitat by the AGFC while the city of Monticello had the dam rebuilt, the water in Lake Monticello now covers about 470 acres. The acreage of water in Lake Monticello’s lakebed has only increased about 20 acres since May as a result of minimal rainfall. The water in Lake Monticello covers about 1,520 acres when it is at full pool. When the lake was first flooded, it took about five years for Lake Monticello to reach full pool, with two drought years during this period.

Fisheries District 5 staff in Monticello worked with AGFC and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery staff to stock about 180,000 fathead minnows, 111,902 golden shiners, 78,840 bluegill and 82,056 redear sunfish into Lake Monticello during the month of October. The fish were placed in a hog trough on a trailer pulled by a UTV. The fish were then transported about 220 yards from the boat ramp to the water’s edge, where they were stocked.

It took quite a few trips to stock all of the fish that were on the hatchery truck.

The AGFC plans on stocking threadfin shad this fall. Florida largemouth bass will be stocked during the summer of 2025. The aforementioned forage and bream species will be stocked again in the fall of 2025, along with black crappie.

If you’re willing to brave the cold, there are some nice trout out and about.

Photo courtesy of AGFC