The sport of Fly fishing in Arkansas is growing at a very rapid pace. Ouachita Outdoors just started stocking fly fishing supplies, and has now been carrying them for this past 2 years. Our growth in this area has been strong.

The trout stocked area around Hot Springs include Remmel Dam, Carpenter Dam, and Blakely Dam. Each winter, starting around November through April, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commissions stock these areas with eight, ten, and tweleve inch Rainbow trout. For the general public, trout are easily caught on corn and power bait.

For the fly fisherman, this gives us access to some excellent trout fishing throughout most of the year. Generally, olive and black wollies are the choice of fly, until the spring hatch occurs. Then your Mayflies, Caddis Flies, and Red Asses are the typical standard.

The Little Missouri River below Lake Greeson has the best trout fisheries in this area. There is a catch and release, barbless area just below the Narrows Dam that holds nice size trout year round. This river above the lake also gets stocked with Rainbows, but these trout do not hold through the summer months; however, for six months we have some of the prettiest trout waters east of the Rockies. The best flies for this area are made by Jeff Guerin (see link). They are the Longcreek, A&W Emerger, Little Mo wolly, Smidge, Smudge, and March Brown.

By the way, Ouachita Outdoors has a fly fishing meeting the second Thursday of each month from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Come join us!