Arkansas is the two-story state: clear Ozark reservoirs (Ouachita, Greers Ferry, Bull Shoals) with stripers, hybrids and giant walleye on top, and below their dams, the coldwater crown jewels: the White and Little Red tailwaters, home of world-record-class brown trout.
Reports current for Friday, October 23
Every one of the 17 Arkansas waters we cover has a live read this morning. 9 are scoring 4 out of 5 or better, and none is slow. Water runs 47 F to 74 F. Pressure is falling on most of them, the trend our model scores highest.
Best right now: DeGray Lake 4/5, Greers Ferry Lake 4/5, Lake Chicot 4/5
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Arkansas' island wilderness lake: 40,000 clear acres, no shoreline development, stripers and giant walleye.
Greers Ferry Lake: 31,500 Corps acres, a walleye record from 1982 and the Little Red River tailwater below the dam.
Deep, clear and quiet: Bull Shoals hides 45,000 acres of Ozark bass water behind one of the South’s great trout tailwaters.
The White River below Bull Shoals Dam: a cold tailwater with more than 90 miles of trout water, fished under AGFC's reduced 2026 trout limits.
The first White River lake: striper mornings, spotted bass depths and Ozark clarity near Bentonville.
Norfork Lake: a 22,000-acre Corps reservoir on the Arkansas–Missouri line, with striped bass, walleye and a trout tailwater below the dam.
DeGray Lake on the Caddo River: a Corps lake of about 13,400 acres with clear-water bass and a state park resort on its shore.
The Greers Ferry Dam tailwater: about 30 miles of AGFC trout water with a wild brown trout population and the 1992 line-class world record brown.
Lake Hamilton: Entergy's hydro lake at Hot Springs, one of four Arkansas lakes that AGFC stocks with striped bass.
Arkansas' swamp giant: 29,000 acres of flooded timber and oxbow character, where big bass and slab crappie live among the cypress.
The Little Missouri's clear pool: Ouachita-mountain water of walleye springs, striped nights and a trout tailwater below the dam.
The Fourche Valley's crappie house: Nimrod's flooded timber stains rich and stacks slabs the old Arkansas way.
A 34,300-acre pool of the Arkansas River at Russellville, where backwater bass, crappie and white bass share the water with barge traffic.
The Mississippi’s abandoned bend: Chicot is Arkansas’s largest natural lake, a 20-mile oxbow full of crappie and bream.
America’s first national river: the Buffalo runs smallmouth and bluffs through the Arkansas Ozarks.
Spring River: a cold, spring-fed river below Mammoth Spring where AGFC manages 12 miles of trout water in Fulton County.
Arkansas’ whitewater river: the Mulberry runs smallmouth through Ozark National Forest bluffs.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Ouachita fishing report | Reservoir | Garland | modeled | Mar |
| Greers Ferry Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Cleburne | USGS | Jun |
| Bull Shoals Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Boone | modeled | Mar |
| White River fishing report | River | Baxter | USGS | Apr |
| Beaver Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Washington | USGS | Mar |
| Norfork Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Baxter | modeled | Mar |
| DeGray Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Clark | modeled | Mar |
| Little Red River fishing report | River | Cleburne | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Hamilton fishing report | Reservoir | Garland | modeled | Apr |
| Millwood Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Little River | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Greeson fishing report | Reservoir | Pike | modeled | Mar |
| Nimrod Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Yell | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Dardanelle fishing report | Reservoir | Pope | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Chicot fishing report | Lake | Chicot | modeled | Mar |
| Buffalo River fishing report | River | Searcy | USGS | May |
| Spring River fishing report | River | Fulton | USGS | Apr |
| Mulberry River fishing report | River | Franklin | USGS | May |
Arkansas packs four distinct fisheries into one license: the White and Little Red tailwaters (world-record brown trout water flowing through Ozark valleys), the clear highland reservoirs (Ouachita, Greers Ferry, Bull Shoals) with their stripers and walleye, the lowland oxbows and bayous where largemouth live under cypress, and the Arkansas River system's blue cats and crappie. Few states offer trophy trout and flooded-timber bass within the same tank of gas.
Winter: the trophy season: high-water browns on the White, Ouachita's stripers schooled deep. March: walleye run the river arms of Greers Ferry. Spring: crappie and bass go shallow everywhere: the oxbows are electric. Summer: night stripers, tailwater trout at dawn, catfish always. Fall: streamer fishing arrives and the reservoirs' topwater returns with the shad migrations.
Deep Ozark reservoirs release cold, fertile water year-round: rivers in the South that behave like Montana, stocked heavily and patrolled by browns that grow past 30 inches.