Ozarks
Fly fishing in Arkansas
Short answer
Arkansas fly fishing is tailwater fishing below deep Ozark reservoirs, with rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout in water far too cold for the latitude. The White River, the Norfork and the Little Red are the headline waters. You need a licence and a trout permit, the fishing is good all year, and the dam release schedule decides your day.
What makes Arkansas different
Arkansas should not have trout at all. It sits at the latitude of Memphis, and before the dams its rivers ran warm. Then the Corps of Engineers built Bull Shoals, Norfork and Greers Ferry, and the water they release comes off the bottom of very deep reservoirs at around fifty degrees all year. The result is several hundred miles of cold river in the Ozarks, holding brown trout as large as any in North America — the Little Red River produced a world-record brown of 40 pounds 4 ounces in 1992. The catch is that the river is a machine with a switch. When the dam generates, the flow can rise several feet in under an hour and wading water becomes a boat river. Checking the generation schedule before you drive out is not a refinement here; it is the difference between a day's fishing and standing on a gravel bar watching the river come up.
What trout and other fish are in Arkansas?
- Brown trout
- The reason people come. The White and the Little Red grow them to extraordinary size.
- Rainbow trout
- Stocked heavily and abundant throughout the tailwaters.
- Cutthroat trout
- Stocked in the White and the Norfork, and a genuine novelty this far east.
- Brook trout
- A small stocked population in the Norfork tailwater.
- Smallmouth bass
- The warmer Ozark streams above the dams — Crooked Creek and the Buffalo.
Where to fly fish in Arkansas
- White River
- Below Bull Shoals. A hundred miles of cold water and the state's signature trout fishery.
- North Fork River
- The Norfork tailwater. Short, rich and heavily fished, with a catch-and-release section.
- Little Red River
- Below Greers Ferry. Where the 40-pound world-record brown came from in 1992.
- Spring River
- Fed by Mammoth Spring rather than a dam, so it runs cold without a generation schedule.
- Beaver Tailwater
- Below Beaver Lake. Smaller water, and quieter than the White.
- Buffalo National River
- Not trout water, but the best smallmouth river in the Ozarks and worth a day.
When to fly fish in Arkansas
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| January – March | Low generation and good wading. Sow bugs, midges and streamers for post-spawn browns. |
| April – May | Caddis, and the heaviest generation of the year as the reservoirs shed spring rain. Fish from a boat. |
| June – August | Generation is usually heavy in the afternoon for power demand. Fish early, or fish from a boat. |
| September – October | Flows settle. Terrestrials, hopper-dropper and the best wading of the year. |
| November – December | Brown trout spawn. Big fish move, and the spawning shoals carry restrictions — stay off the redds. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Arkansas?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $20.50 |
| Non-resident, annual | $80 |
Arkansas sells trout fishing in two parts. The resident total is a $10.50 Fisheries Conservation Licence plus the $10 resident trout permit; the non-resident total is a $60 annual licence plus the $20 non-resident trout permit. Resident licences run to 30 June. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A fishing licence is required from age 16, and a trout permit is required in addition to fish the tailwaters or keep a trout.
- The trout permit applies on the tailwaters below Beaver, Bull Shoals, Norfork, Greers Ferry and Lake Greeson — which is to say, on all the water this page is about.
- Stretches of the White and the Norfork are catch and release with artificial lures only, and the boundaries are signed.
- Dam generation is scheduled by the Southwestern Power Administration, not by the Game and Fish Commission. Check the release schedule before you travel and again before you wade.
- Seasonal restrictions protect spawning brown trout in autumn and winter. Check the current rules.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Arkansas
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
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