Spillway Release

[breeden3]

Hey everybody, just a heads up. Spillway flows are about to be elevated while they do some inspections on the powerhouse. The flows are posted in the pictures. The Corps is taking a proactive approach so we avoid another catastrophic flood. It is much appreciated. I believe these flows will have minimal impact on the fish in the river, and it should hopefully flush out some of the sediment in the Evening Hole area.

Tight Lines,
Peter

[FlyAndStream]

To add to what Peter has said:

---

As a result of ongoing repairs being performed to the Powerhouse Release dam, the The US army corps of engineers will be releasing a significant amount of lake water through the Broken Bow Lake Spillway Dam release. This large volume of lake water will run through the entire state park:

Spillway Dam, 1st increase
01/12/2021 – an increase from 110 CFS to 1,400 CFS

Spillway Dam, 2nd increase
01/13/2021 – an increase from 1,400 CFS to 2,600 CFS

[jonbo]

I fished once at 800 - 1000, with streamers. Did okay! Kind of hard to wade. 3700 might be a wee bit high...

[jonbo]

How long is this situation supposed to last for?!

[golferjeff]

minimum thru the 20th, but no definitive timetable

[hoss]

That would be awesome if it improves Evening Hole, thanks for the update!

[czoscar]

Jan 11, 2021 20:56:35 GMT -6 breeden3 said:

Hey everybody, just a heads up. Spillway flows are about to be elevated while they do some inspections on the powerhouse. The flows are posted in the pictures. The Corps is taking a proactive approach so we avoid another catastrophic flood. It is much appreciated. I believe these flows will have minimal impact on the fish in the river, and it should hopefully flush out some of the sediment in the Evening Hole area.

Tight Lines,
Peter

Thanks Peter.  It was good to see you yesterday and today and get the status/update.  I wish I had checked here before driving up but still a break from routine.  It sounds like some good may come out of the “spill”.

thanks again.

[onlyontuesday]

Jan 12, 2021 20:08:30 GMT -6 golferjeff said:

minimum thru the 20th, but no definitive timetable

Yikes - scheduled for a week at our cabin starting the 25th!

[luguy08]

sounds like i will have a wasted trip. I will be there Thursday-Sunday. Can anyone help with where/if i have a chance of getting some trout? This has been planned for 5 months and now i feel like it's a waste if i can't even fish.

[dainw]

Jan 19, 2021 16:13:57 GMT -6 luguy08 said:

sounds like i will have a wasted trip. I will be there Thursday-Sunday. Can anyone help with where/if i have a chance of getting some trout? This has been planned for 5 months and now i feel like it's a waste if i can't even fish.

Have you looked into the little Missouri River in Arkansas? It’s not too far from broken bow, maybe 45 minutes or so and can be a lot of fun if you catch it right.

[luguy08]

I haven't looked at all. I will take a look. Fish with midges and small flies like BB I assume?

[dainw]

Yeah that stuff works fine. We did pretty well on eggs, worms, stonefly nymphs when we were there as well. Been a couple years since I’ve been, but I think there is a forum where is some more up to date info.

[luguy08]

Thanks, I would rather stay and fish LMF since i'm familiar with it, but if it is unfishable I have to go where I can fish. If they stop the flow tomorrow, would that make it fishable at all?

[dainw]

Yeah I mean, once they shut the gates water levels will recede to normal levels pretty fast. It may take a while for the fish to get back into their normal feeding lanes again and the bite to turn on, but once the water gets shut off, river will be fishable within a couple of hours. I haven’t seen anything that said the water will for sure be turned off tomorrow though for what it’s worth.

[luguy08]

yeah, i was on the state.gov site that just gave 12-20th release date but i'm with you on not seeing a for sure cut off date. Started looking at the Blue River and the Little Missouri like you said. It is like an hour to an hour and a half from Beavers bend to either one it looks like, but i will dirve it if i have to. Thanks for the info.

[turfdawg]

Jan 19, 2021 17:03:18 GMT -6 luguy08 said:

yeah, i was on the state.gov site that just gave 12-20th release date but i'm with you on not seeing a for sure cut off date. Started looking at the Blue River and the Little Missouri like you said. It is like an hour to an hour and a half from Beavers bend to either one it looks like, but i will dirve it if i have to. Thanks for the info.

It’s more like 2hrs and blue being a bit longer. The little mo depends on the generation schedule and the blue is affected by rain so make sure you check both before you leave out

[luguy08]

what is the best place to check for each of those? As far as rain goes I can check on that for the blue on weather app

[jonbo]

Narrows Dam (Little Missouri) Generation Schedule

It opens as an Excell spreadsheet, so you have to be able to open and read one on your device. It's by the week. The usual stuff works, especially midges, so you have the right idea. There's 5 main spots in the tailwater. The first 4 have designated parking. No matter how you come from Broken Bow, whether above Lake Greeson or below it, you have to go through Murfreesboro to get to the tailwater.... Here, I'll just paste in the PM I sent to Bill. I don't think there's any big secrets in it.

Here 'tis:

Okay, 2 general areas to fish. The first one is the tailwater below the dam. it has about 5 spots. (This description has you going all the way to the dam from Murfreesboro to start your fishing. It's a good way to do it.) You have to drive on the road from one access to the next. If you start up by the dam, the first one is Riverside Park. There's fish all over. The water's mostly slow indicator water. I often fish between the big rocks sticking up by the boat ramp. Down past the pavilion in the Park is the Wall Hole. Deeper water. You wade down to it to fly fish. Treacherous rocks, lots of fish. Bait fishers fish from the benches on top of the wall.

About a mile downstream is River Ridge. There's a weir or small dam. It's like fishing Cold Hole. I never go there. Another half of a mile down is Hind's Bluff. There's a little variety there. The pool straight in front holds most of the fish, but downstream is good, too. To go around the corner you have to cross right around the riffles. It's very slick.

2 more miles downstream is The Old Factory Site. You're kind of away from the river where you turn, kind of in a town area by a church. There's a sign for it. You go down about a mile to the river. I like to euro nymph the skinny water downstream of the weir. I generally find it and Low Water Bridge less crowded than the other places.

Speaking of Low Water Bridge, you go all the way back to Murfreesboro. Resist turning left and going to Sonic or the decent Mexican restaurant for now. Instead, turn right and go 2 miles till a bridge crosses the river. That's called LWB. Drive down to the river right when you get to the bridge. You can fish all over. My best results are between where you park and the weir, in that run.

Midges work real good, also red midge larvae or "bloodworms". So do all mayfly imitations.

The second area is a completely different area upstream a ways from the lake itself. It's called Albert Pike, kind of a combo park and cabin area. The fishing area runs about a mile, but I've only caught fish in an area maybe as long as the Evening Hole. If you get to Albert Pike and see where you can turn down to a kind of office and cabins, don't. Go straight about a quarter mile and park. Wade across the river and fish downstream toward that main area.

[jonbo]

Jan 20, 2021 5:15:34 GMT -6 jonbo said:

Narrows Dam (Little Missouri) Generation Schedule

It opens as an Excell spreadsheet, so you have to be able to open and read one on your device. It's by the week. The usual stuff works, especially midges, so you have the right idea. There's 5 main spots in the tailwater. The first 4 have designated parking. No matter how you come from Broken Bow, whether above Lake Greeson or below it, you have to go through Murfreesboro to get to the tailwater.... Here, I'll just paste in the PM I sent to Bill. I don't think there's any big secrets in it.

Here 'tis:

Okay, 2 general areas to fish. The first one is the tailwater below the dam. it has about 5 spots. (This description has you going all the way to the dam from Murfreesboro to start your fishing. It's a good way to do it.) You have to drive on the road from one access to the next. If you start up by the dam, the first one is Riverside Park. There's fish all over. The water's mostly slow indicator water. I often fish between the big rocks sticking up by the boat ramp. Down past the pavilion in the Park is the Wall Hole. Deeper water. You wade down to it to fly fish. Treacherous rocks, lots of fish. Bait fishers fish from the benches on top of the wall.

About a mile downstream is River Ridge. There's a weir or small dam. It's like fishing Cold Hole. I never go there. Another half of a mile down is Hind's Bluff. There's a little variety there. The pool straight in front holds most of the fish, but downstream is good, too. To go around the corner you have to cross right around the riffles. It's very slick.

2 more miles downstream is The Old Factory Site. You're kind of away from the river where you turn, kind of in a town area by a church. There's a sign for it. You go down about a mile to the river. I like to euro nymph the skinny water downstream of the weir. An indicator with any mayfly nymph works great, too. I generally find it and Low Water Bridge less crowded than the other places.

Speaking of Low Water Bridge, you go all the way back to Murfreesboro. Resist turning left and going to Sonic or the decent Mexican restaurant for now. Instead, turn right and go 2 miles till a bridge crosses the river. That's called LWB. Drive down to the river right when you get to the bridge. You can fish all over. My best results are between where you park and the weir, in that run.

Midges work real good, also red midge larvae or "bloodworms". So do all mayfly imitations.

The second area is a completely different area upstream a ways from the lake itself. It's called Albert Pike, kind of a combo park and cabin area. The fishing area runs about a mile, but I've only caught fish in an area maybe as long as the Evening Hole. If you get to Albert Pike and see where you can turn down to a kind of office and cabins, don't. Go straight about a quarter mile and park. Wade across the river and fish downstream toward that main area.

[luguy08]

Thank You, I appreciate the information. I'm still holding out hope that they stop releasing today at LMF, but that is my backup. I'm sure the 3 other guys coming with me won't be as uptight about fishing as me, but man I love to fish, so I do what I have to in order to get a fly wet.

[FlyAndStream]

For those ever interested in what CFS is being released from spillway dam and flowing through the park (GAT), I've always found this webpage provides accurate easy to read information, as well as recent gate changes to spillway. It shows powerhouse generation (Turbine) CFS as well:

www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/BROK.lakepage.html

[golferjeff]

Aaron’s link is good. Keep in mind access to the river is closed for now. It may take a few hours or a day for the powers that be to remove restrictions once flows reduce.

[golferjeff]

Here is the latest....  ramping down flows today and tomorrow.  Weekend flows will be in the normal range.  There may still be some residual water from back bays and runoff areas, but it will be wade-able.  Park Rangers will evaluate and make a decision on when to allow access to the water.

Love to see what changes were caused by the flush.

[FlyAndStream]

Looks like we're back to 107 CFS coming out of Spillway through the park again. Wish they'd keep it at least at 140-170, oh well. At least it's easily wadeable again 🙌