This Tennessee resident was on the Little Red River near Heber Springs in recent days when he caught this nice brown trout (above) while fishing with guide Mike Winkler. Mike reports that he had Jason throwing big articulated streamers toward the bank with an 8-weight fly rod with a 330-grain sink line. The hot fly on this day was a yellow and brown Double Deceiver. "We boated several browns that day. This was the best one of the bunch," Mike said.

The Southwestern Power Administration has quickly lowered Greers Ferry Lake with daily 12-hour generation, That water pours into the Little Red, putting it on a steady rise starting at 9 a.m. at the dam and running until after dark. Getting out there early, and beating the rise to other accesses downriver, will be the keys to a successful day. 

Walleye seem to be biting nicely in several places, and other big Corps of Engineers lakes are getting close to normal pool, if not easing below it. Millwood Lake is on what has become an annual summer drawdown of 2 feet, partly so the AGFC can plant Japanese millet on the shoreline for the migrating waterfowl coming later this fall. The drawdown is beneficial in several other ways, but with the drawdown comes urges of extremely cautious navigation now that more of those stumps and other underwater wood are 2 feet closer to the surface of what is not a very deep lake to begin with. The lake will be returned to normal pool by Nov. 1.

We've got great news still coming from DeGray Lake, and there are reports of lake temperatures around the state actually cooling some this week (many thanks to the front last weekend that dropped the overnight temps significantly).

Crappie apparently are picking their spots with more reports of biting. We didn't hear of any 10-pound bass caught this week, but we did catch wind of 6- and 7-pounders in some tournaments over the weekend, plus the bite is good in such lakes as Greers Ferry and in spots along the Arkansas River in the Little Rock pool (the river has slowed down to almost lake-like after weeks of fast current).

Also, the largemouths in the Little Maumelle River are biting excellently. And bream should be very active again with this week's full moon.