Little Red River

[WhiteRiverWill]

Feedcall the Little Red is an excellent trout stream. It was a little harder for me to learn how to fish than the White but once you catch on it is great. My most consistent place to catch fish is down below the Swinging Bridge Resort. There used to be a swinging bridge across the river there that fell and killed some people several years ago. Walk down the left hand side of the river about 1/4 to 1/2 mile and fish in and below the sets of shoals.

Down at the end of the road where you will be staying is a sharp turn and parking area at the Cow Shoals public access. That is a seasonal catch and release area that is used by the big brown trout for spawning beginning about the first of October. That is a sight to see. Good luck. I hope you wear them out!

[SoftCall]

scuds and weighted head wooley boogers

[4dawgma]

Those shouls are nice but I had trouble getting the boat over

[Double Deuce]

Been going there for years using the powerbait and corn. I have always caught alot of fish but never that many with to much size. When we went last year we stayed at Rainbow resort and went to the fishing shop there at the resort and met some guys that showed us a new bait. Its artificial and we used a cork when fishing with it. You have to rent a boat and go down river a bit and you fish jst like you would for brim.

[champcaller]

scuds and weighted head wooley boogers

exactly.

scuds are the way to go on this river and norfork. i prefer the unweighted head but a olive wooley booger will do the trick, but start out with scuds and buy a lot of em!!!!!!!!!


also, if you have a 7 or 8 wt. go out at night and tie on a BIG streamer. i prefer browns and olives but many different things will work.

[YazooValley]

I used to fish the Little Red on occasion but I haven't been in a couple of years. Catching them on a fly rod isn't always easy. Check the fishing reports for what they're biting:

http://www.littleredflyshop.com/report.htm

If you really want to catch a bunch of fish, use spinning gear with powerbaits and spoons. Little Cleo and Super Dupers and such.

The river fluctuates a ton based on how much they're generating at the time. We've had better luck with low water but it makes the boat run kind of tough.

One of my favorite outdoor days was the Arkansas duck opener about 5 or 6 years ago. Three man limit of ducks in the AM and about 100 trout in the PM. Buddy caught about a 5 pound brown.

[champcaller]

also if you want the opportunity to catch a BIG trout do the following:

get a good spinning set up and get a good size trout colored spoon and let the current take it down and just wait... ive got some horor stories about some big trout we lost one night on the white.......

[Denduke]

http://www.flyflinger.com/river.php
http://p088.ezboard.com/bflyfishingarkansasandmissouri
http://www.littleredflyshop.com/report.htm
Only been there twice mostly JFK Park @ hatchery, some @ Winkley by the fly shop. Saw a "scary" size brown one day. Right now good chance to catch a brookie, they say. Plenty info at these sites. The annual trout permit 'bout $12 and 7 day OSer trout license $17, I think. Can't wait to get back! I only flyfished. Been tying... Experimenting with crawdad, weighted deer hair sculpin. Gonna stock up on flies for maybe this summer trip. Bowed up at work lately and upcoming shut downs...

[champcaller]

good looking flies denduke


has anyone here ever tried czech npymphing? its a really great tactic thats works well in fast moving water

[BeastMaster]

had good luck with those lil cleo's and super dupers on the lil red... as well as rebel crawfish .. the two smallest sizes work well... you can fish with corn, powerbait, cheeze, salmoon eggs, marshmellows and an assortment of house hold goods but i dont recommend it.. i'd rather shoot turtles than fish with that crap and it is CRAP.. none of those baits are natural on any river in arkansas and there are plenty of other lures or baits that are... if you like using bait, then try using nightcrawlers with a small shot.. the smaller the better usually.. u want the worm to just barely bounce along the bottom but not be so heavy it holds it.. never let your bait just sit there like grandma and grandpa in there folding chairs.. moving bait is way more effective but you must learn to distinguish the bite from bouncing on rocks.. as far as lures i like several in line spinners such as rooster tails, panther martins work well too.. lil cleo's "gold or silver" and super duper's... other lures that work well are most any small rapala especially the j5 and j7 and the jointed shad rap.. had limited luck on rebel minnows but did well on pen's minnow made by yozuri.. of those lures i try to stay between 1 1/4" and 2" for trout.. some rapala's work fine that are up to 3"... i keep an assortment of colors but you can't go wrong with bright colors.. silver, gold, chartreuse, yellow et al....

caught a 12 lb rainbow and countless 4-6 lb rainbows and browns

when trout are hungry they will eat anything "marshmellows, corn, cheeze" but the real treat is catching trout when no one else is.. splashing around yee hawing and yiippeeing while everyone else is having zero luck always makes my day.. trial and error

don't shame the rest of the MS boys by buying that crap powerbait and corn.. if you just have to, then atleast say your from Michigan or California

[champcaller]

yea the only thing i didnt like about it when i and others are fly fishing is watching some top water sit on the dock and catch a 5lb brown with corn or a worm just like hes brim fishing

[feedcall]

Thanks for all the info, do you guys remember how far down stream the swinging bridge is from the damn? I am staying at the redriver trout dock, is it close? Thanks again for all the info, and any of you regulars recommend the best driving route? GPS,mapquest, and yahoo all have different routes!

[feedcall]

The dam I mean

[Denduke]

http://www.flyfishingarkansas.com/LittleRedMap.jpg
Is the river map...The Fly Shop and Dock is at Winkley Shoals (Swinging Bridge) Which is on HWY 110 from Heber Springs. HWY 25 crosses the dam 25B hits 110. HWY 25/25B kinda makes a circle around a mountain!

Anyway, I go to Vicksburg/Tallulah then up 65 thru Lake Village ( I go to Monticello to visit family, our orig. home place, Florence) but you'd go on thru Dumas, Pine Bluff. Outside of Pine Bluff get on I530 to Little Rock which turns into I30. Go strait across LR faster than going around. I go I40 to Conway. Get off I40 at Conway onto HWY65 to Greenbrair then over to Heber Springs. You can go NE on I40 endeding up at Searcy then over to your trout dock then to Heber Springs. Great thing about it is when you leave Little Rock and for sure Conway ther ain't any Democrats around. Few Mexicans though.

You might wanta cross the Ark. River on HWY 79 and go by Bayou Meto and go to Mack's at Stuttgart.
When you stop at Walmart and get your trout permit and 3,7 day license you'll get a book with maps and some how tos and good info...You won't be more than 5-10 miles from HS and they got a Walmart! If you're wade fishing you can work around the dam releases by driving down river 2/3 hours ahead of the flow. Starting out at the JFK park and tour the hatchery. Some biguns in there for sure!

Go to the hatchery pipe that is empting into the river at the carch and release/barbless area boundary in the Park near the entrance and drift a fly in that. Pretty much get one every time and occasionally a bigun will surprise you there. Deep mossy water by the boat launch but you'll run into the cooler fillers/baiters in the park. Guides and a boat prolly the best way to do it.

Gotta go tornado....

[Caller1]

Beastmaster took me and a friend on a guided rainbow trout trip once. Once. Always talks bout catching all kinds of fish but I only have that trip to base his fishing prowness on. OH, with the exception of the time I took him to Venice only to run laps around him, but that was a different kind of trout, eh Beasty?