I've fished most of the river from the Spillway bridge to the power plant.

I really want to catch my first brown trout. I've been told I need to fish the Spillway. I haven't spent any time up there, really.

Is access easier at the top parking area, or the one just down from there?

What flies are working? I'm planning on rubber legs and perdigon/chironomids/other nymphs?

It's mostly pocket water up there, isn't it?
Photo for attention.

pm sent

Pm'ed OP, too.

Secret handshake. Let's see those BROWNS!

Spillway at dawn and dusk for the wild browns.

The truth of the matter is there just aren’t THAT many brown trout in that river. Pre flood there were some 30+” fish (rainbows too) if you knew where to go. There were some BIG browns in a few areas, not so much anymore. Id feel more confident chasing smallmouth on that river than I would confidently targeting a brown trout. Fly choice doesn’t matter that much. Lmfr fish aren’t that picky, put something that looks like food in their face with a good drift. Run a two fly rig with a bright colored salmon egg ahead of it if you want to dead drift, and you can also throw streamers under certain conditions. I’ve fished that river for probably close to 20 years and I bet I’ve only landed 20-30 brown trout. It’s just a matter of luck down there, they’d pop up in the spillway from time to time, occasionally you’d find one in lost creek, and I even caught one downstream of the evening hole. I have seen them caught down at zone 2 but I’ve never caught one. I haven’t been down there in a long time.

If you really want to catch some Brown Trout, go to the Little Red River out of Heber Springs, AR. The next few months will be PRIME for catching some nice browns there. LMF? Not so much. That place is managed for the weekend put-and-take crowd. Most of them don’t know a rainbow from a brown, and when it gets on the hook, it goes on the stringer. Like McKinney, I’ve been fishing the LMF for 20+ years. I used to catch lots of brownies on Pink Hendrickson and Light Cahills right below the OPD and below the Stephen Tyler tree. IYKYK

Hire a guide out of the fly shop in the park. I’ve heard that they know pretty much all the big brownies by name.

JR

Better yet, just make a summer trip to Colorado, most of the lower elevation headwater streams the browns are almost a nuisance along with the brookies. Regarding the lmf the last time I think I landed a brown trout out of that river was something like 7-8 years ago. I remember probably 12-13 years ago catching some BIG browns. I want to say two of us landed like 4-5 fish over 6 lbs one day with the biggest over 10. Those are days of ancient history.

The brown trout on the LMF, particularly in Spillway creek are actually doing very well. The state and the LMFRF started stocking the browns as fingerlings in 2019. This was because brown trout stocked at larger sizes were indeed poached. By putting them in as fingerlings, they grow up in a wild environment and are much less likely to be caught and poached. Many states employ this strategy successfully. If 10% of 10,000 fingerlings make it to 12-14”, that is significant recruitment of quality fish. If even 10% of those make it to spawning maturity, that is very successful recruitment. There are many studies that have been done showing the catch ability of rainbows vs browns. Browns have been demonstrated in controlled environments as being up to 7 times harder to catch than rainbow trout. Because of their elusive and reclusive nature, they are very well suited to survive on a heavily pressured stream like the LMF. The lack of them being caught doesn’t equate to them not being there. Some of the biggest browns I know of are in the most heavily bait fished holes.

I tracked the browns for ODWC for almost a decade. We got to know many of the big browns, particularly in the Evening Hole area. They would disappear for extended periods of time and we would think they had finally gotten poached, only for them to show up in the exact same hole say 10 months later. Keep in mind this was from Fly Shop bridge to Spillway dam, so roughly 2 miles of water. There is a barrier at fly shop bridge called the stop logs which prevents travel below the bridge. As for browns that are named, most of those are around the evening hole area. The big browns that inhabit Spillway creek are unnamed, mostly because they are not encountered as frequently, due to the depth of the pools, undercut bedrock, and moss up there. Lots of great places to hide. Big browns 18”+ that we didn’t have documented would show up fairly frequently, particularly in SC. I will also say the best brown trout spawns that I have witnessed on the LMF were 2022 and 2023 fall. There were redds and mature fish from 40ft hole to just below Spillway dam.

Just because there are good numbers of them doesn’t mean they are easy to catch. The LMF is one of the most heavily pressured rivers in the country. Big browns are notoriously difficult to catch anyways. Even more so under heavy pressure. Some days you can’t buy a brown, other days you catch 10 of them.

If anybody does instagram, there is a page called MountainForkGold that highlights the brown trout on the LMF.