Has anyone ever fished Lake Greeson or the tailwater below, near Murfreesboro, Arkansas? My son wants to go to the Crater of Diamonds State Park, and in his ten year old mind get rich. Not that I am opposed. LOL However I want to go fishing. I do know they catch trout in the tailwater area, and the little info I can find on Arkansas.com says there are LMB, smallies and I would also bet walleye or the like. I think it is called the Narrows Dam. Just curious if anyone else has been to that area.

Also we will be fishing from the bank or possibly wading, if the flow will allow. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Below the dam there are rainbow trout. It has been over 20 years, but if my memory is good they bit on a gold ribbed hare's ear nymph (size 12 or 14) and some yellow dry that a guy I met on the bank gave me. They aren't monsters, to be sure, but if you like to fly fish the action was pretty good. A 5 wt rod and 7' leader will work fine.

Have fun!

I have been there, but not fishing yet. I was there several weeks ago. The lake is beautiful. I know there are trout there. They have rainbows, and some browns.

I was there last summer and the bass fishing was slow (we went because Texoma flooded). However, they said that March was the best month to fish the lake. We stayed at Self Creek. The accomodations were great if you are looking for a place to stay. The people at one of the stores said that in March the smallie fishing was great on the upper part of the lake and into the Little Missouri River.

Thanks for all the information. My son is so excited about trout fishing I may be able to pull him away from digging for diamonds.

everything you need to know about the lake.. http://www.littlemissouriflyfishing.com/

Took a short trip to Greeson a couple of years ago. Parked the RV at Daisy State Park. It's a real nice place with a boat ramp on the north end. Caught several nice sandies and a few walleye. My wife caught a 6 lb flathead catfish. We drove around the lake and took the grandson to the Diamond Mine. We were not lucky that day but had a real good time. We talked about staying at the Murphreesboro end next time. Most all the boats headed toward the dam when they put in. We just eased along here and there......Good luck & have a good time

I have fished the tailrace below Greeson many times for trout. Several years ago they changed up the way they release water from the lake into the river. This was done so that smallmouth bass would live and reproduce and at the same time allow the trout to exsist in the river. The trout are stocked every year because very few live thru the hot summer. I have caught trout up to 2.5 lbs but nothing bigger. The majority of the trout will be 10-14" fish. The smallies were off limits at that time and very small. All smallies had to be returned back into the river at once. If they are releasing water fishing can be very good but very tough. It is next to impossible to wade when they are releasing & generating, very dangerous. It has been 10 years or so since I fished there so a lot of change could have taken place.

I have fished the tailrace 4 times in the last 7 years, always caught fish and have a good time.. The upper little Mo is full of smallmouth bass (Albert Pike area) and it really pretty in the spring and fall. Call Jeff and hire him to guide.. you will not be disappointed..

Y'all are making me want to go there and fish. I would have to buy an out of state fishing license for a year though. (for my son and I) I think I feel a trip coming up before it gets too hot. What are May temps in that area? I hope it is much cooler than NE Tx.

I just looked it up and it is 52 bucks for me to get a license there. (for trout and other game fish) You have to buy a license at 16 there in Arkansas. Here in Texas it is 17 when you have to buy your teen a license. Personally I think you should be 19 when you have to buy a license as an adult. Parents are already paying dearly to raise kids these days. We pay a fortune in trips, and tackle that helps the economy. To soak people for more just gripes me. It is hard for a bank fisher to get a 14 inch bass. They keep raising the limits, and adding slots. Which means less fish in my freezer. Gas alone is hurting most anglers. As long as a kid is still in school they should not have to get a license I believe. By 19 years old kids should of already graduated from high school. Surely they will have a part time job by now and pay for their own license.

Never fished below the dam but fished Lake Greeson and the Little Missouri river above the lake for several years awhile back.

It has been 7-8 years since the last time, but we used to fish Greeson around the 3rd weekend of May each year.

My buddy's family has a cabin there and he grew up fishing Greeson. May is always a tough month, but that was when we could get 10-15 guys together and go.

Some of us would go up early Thurday and we had some pretty good fisherman in that group. We would fish hard on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Caught very little but sometimes would get in the stripers on the surface-wow- or find a school of white bass. The only walleye I ever caught came from Greeson.

Anyway, by Friday afternoon the weekenders were arriving with jet skis and ski boats and those boats with 350 Chevy engines that would race up and down the lake. It would get crowded and noisy, so we didn't fish the lake much after about 2:00 on Friday

But...
Saturday was when 3-5 (river is not that big and 5 could get crowded) of us would go wade fish the Little Missouri. We would head up toward Albert Pike but we'd get in the river at one of the bridges several miles below Albert Pike. We just parked and walked into the river and started upstream.

The water was always cold especially if you got more than waist deep-and you could generally count on slipping on the slick rocks at least once-and going under, but then there would be stretches of several hundred yards that were very easy to wadeamd would be knee deep or you could walk in part of the riverbed and fish the channel from the bank

We fished ultralite spinning reels and used 1/16 oz jigheads with 2-3 inch crawfish in translucent gold/whiskey colors primarily. We also used some small inline spinners and even teeny torpedos. Small rapalas were pretty good as well.

We caught smallmouth(biggest I ever saw was about 1 1/2 lb-most were 10-12 inches)a few largemouth(river gets too cold for them), some spotted bass, many different sunfish, goggle-eyes and an occasional rainbow that apparently made its way down from stocking upstream somewhere.

Just about every year, we would get to a spot where the water pooled below a rapid and that is where the gar were stacked up. Nothing too big-maybe 2 1/2 feet long, but they would be there by the drove.

One year a guy snagged one and then didn't want to get close enough to unhook him! Fortunately, it came off once it reached the dry ground.
We'd usually fish about 1 1/2 to 2 miles up the river, just taking our time and then walk back down before dark.

We always talked about dragging an inner tube behind us so that when we got tired we could float down to the bridge, but we never did it.


Go and have fun, but watch where you put your feet on those river rocks...

Thanks for all that detail, it is much needed and appreciated. Sounds like y'all had a blast. I sure wish I could take off for a week and go there NOW.....hehehe.

Thanks for all the imput. We just got back and had a blast. We did manage to catch twenty trout in the tailwater area Monday. I have offically hooked my son on fishing.

I had forgotten how hard a trout fights. It had been twenty years since I had caught one.

One note. Anyone that goes through Murfreesboro, Arkansas needs to stop and eat at Buddy's. It is right on the main road and you have to pass it. It had the best chicken fried steak that I have ever had. And the owner is a trip!@! Gotta love small town's

I'd love to go back sometime soon! Maybe real soon for a long weekend!