Arkansas Oct. 1 weekly: cooler Little Red flows, Beaver stripers, Millwood schools

Jim Harris’s Arkansas Wildlife Weekly Fishing Report for Oct. 1, 2026, is a cooler-water sheet, not a reprint of the Sept. 17 Beaver walleye note. On the Little Red, Mike Winkler of Little Red River Fly Fishing Trips (updated Sept. 24) said power demand has dropped and Greers Ferry is releasing less water. Southwestern Power Administration was projecting one unit for two hours on Wednesday and two units for one hour on Thursday. He called it an excellent week to wade, starting at JFK Park or Swinging Bridge, both of which have been getting heavy stockings. Boat anglers were doing well at Dripping Springs and Lobo Landing; with lower flows he wants the deeper sections, moss beds, and plunge pools below the shoals. The same section still prints the early-2026 Little Red limit: two trout a day, and any trout 14 inches or longer must be released immediately, until further notice.

Beaver Lake’s note in the same report, from Jon Conklin of FishOn Guide Service, has the lake at 1,130.30 feet msl and water in the upper 70s. Striper fishing is still good, with fish at the dam and back to Prairie Creek. White bass were starting to school at Point 12. On the Beaver tailwater, guide Austin Kennedy (updated Oct. 1) said low water is still the story: trout are fair, and walleye are still being caught toward Holiday Island on white grubs and paddle-tail swimbaits worked slowly on the bottom.

At Millwood, Mike Siefert (updated Oct. 1) is seeing more large schools of largemouth chasing threadfin shad, plus white bass schooling early near those largemouths. The lake is near normal pool and stable, the dam is releasing about 514 cfs, and surface temperatures over the past week ran 84–89°F. The report also still carries the emergency trout proclamation: catch-and-release on the 45 miles below Bull Shoals Dam to the Norfork Access boat ramp, catch-and-release on the Norfork tailwater, and a two-trout limit from Norfork Access to the Highway 58 bridge at Guion. A separate February note in the same file describes a two-rainbow limit below Bull Shoals. Read the live rule at AGFC before you keep a trout.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: AGFC — Arkansas Wildlife Weekly Fishing Report (Jim Harris, Oct. 1, 2026). Emergency trout link printed in that report: agfc.com/TroutRegsNews.