Flooding

[bkbying89]

Anybody have any information or photos of the flooding here. The one picture I saw didn't look good.

[watermen2]

Hatchery is a total loss, they will have to bring fish in.

[Greasy B]

Hatchery might be a loss but most of the fish are probably fine, they'll just be scattered up and down the river. 

[awhuber]

7 minutes ago, Greasy B said:

Hatchery might be a loss but most of the fish are probably fine, they'll just be scattered up and down the river. 

The fish are scattered from Tan Vat To Ashley....all over the place. Thousands of dead trout laying everywhere. It will be pretty stinky around here for a while.

 

[Greasy B]

 Bummer, I guess fish that only know how to live in a concrete trough don't have the sense to find their way back to the river. 

[bkbying89]

I had read on one of the sites that there were a lot of dead trout at Baptist Camp. Bummer, if it did that to the trout in the Current what did it do to the fish in the rest of the rivers? I guess they could have been the hatchery stockers. I was going to take a drive but now the Missouri has flooded out of the banks and the last time I checked Hwy 47 over to Washington was closed. That would mean a really long trip around for me to reach any of the streams I would normally fish. Maybe it will open by Saturday and I can do some exploring.

 

[Al Agnew]

Probably most of the dead trout are from the hatchery, not the ones that had already been stocked and had lived in the river for a while.  There have been massive floods on the upper Current before, and the trout population in the river didn't appear to suffer very much.  Most fish probably have an instinct to preserve themselves in floods, but if you take a trout whose only "home water" has been a concrete trough, and it gets washed out, it's kinda hard for that trout to find its way back to the trough!  If it's been living in the river for a bit, it's a lot easier to follow the high water back down to the river channel as it drops.  I suspect that most fish have an instinct to move to sheltered areas during a flood, even if those areas are up in the woods where the current is slowed, rather than allow themselves to be washed down to Arkansas.  Then all they have to do is move back to the channel as the flood subsides.

[moguy1973]

They are all just up on the banks looking for the pellets.

[OrbitFish]

Was able to get to Montauk on Saturday 5/13. Fishing was fantastic inside the park. Catch and release was especially productive, caught several large fish and a father and son pair were totally busting it up next to us on white maribou jigs. Lots of small escapees made fishing with most fly gear sort of annoying after the initial novelty wore off. I'd chosen to use a new Tenkara rod which made for some fun when I hooked on to some larger fish.

Was downstream near Van Tat for a bit. River looked good but was only able to spend 30 mins there. The parking lot is closed.

Campgrounds were full and the areas nearest the river looked like beach volleyball might be in order - sand everywhere.

Park looked good.