Mother's Day 1992, near the old Swinging Bridge
Howard "Rip" Collins hooked his brown around 11 in the morning on May 9, 1992, on a 1/32-ounce olive marabou jig, four-pound line and a four-and-a-half-foot spinning rod, near what locals called the Swinging Bridge and is now Barnett Access. Game & Fish's account says the fight took about 20 minutes and the fish measured 40 and a quarter inches; it was weighed the next day on the post office scale in Heber Springs at 40 pounds 4 ounces, and the IGFA accepted it. It held the all-tackle record until a 41-pound 7-ounce Manistee River fish replaced it in 2009, and AGFC still lists it as the four-pound line class world record.
The bridge the spot was named for, a wooden span begun in 1912 and closed to cars in 1972, collapsed on October 28, 1989 and killed five people. The browns themselves are not stocked. AGFC says they were introduced in 1977 and now reproduce on their own, while rainbows have been stocked since 1966, mostly from Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery at the foot of the dam.
Two units, 7,900 cfs, and a gauge that reads the next morning
Greers Ferry Dam was finished in December 1962, dedicated by President Kennedy in October 1963, and began commercial generation in July 1964. SWPA lists two units, 110 megawatts, and about 7,900 cfs at full power; on its day-ahead schedule the dam is column 15, GFD. On The Fly South and Perfect Fly both put the river's range at 20 to 7,500 cfs and one generator at 2,500 to 4,000. The Corps' outflow line is (501) 362-5150. Mike Winkler's reports describe the common pattern: two units starting around 2 p.m. on weekdays and running into the evening, and in wet winters both units nearly around the clock to pull the lake back to its 462-foot winter pool.
USGS 07076517 near Dewey is the only Little Red gauge still reporting discharge; the Heber Springs station below the dam now reads only temperature and oxygen. Dewey is well down the river, so the afternoon release arrives there overnight. In mid-September 2026, afternoons of 88 megawatts at the dam showed up at Dewey as peaks of 2,290 to 3,730 cfs between about 5 and 10 the next morning, and on no-generation days the gauge sat at 275 to 330 cfs and 3.6 to 3.8 feet. The 250 to 600 cfs band on this page is that no-generation river, taken from the USGS record rather than a shop chart, because The Angler's Destination is blunt that wading is near impossible with all but the lowest generation, and Fish 'N Stuff in Sherwood says of two units that you can't really fish it.
JFK, Cow Shoals and Mossy: where every trout goes back
The Greers Ferry Tailwater runs from 100 yards below the dam to the Highway 305 bridge, needs a trout permit, and bans fishing, boating and wading in that first 100 yards. Since February 1, 2026, and repeated in the 2026-27 guidebook, you may keep two trout and both must be under 14 inches; the standing rule of five with one over 16 is suspended. There is no separate brown trout minimum here, which means under the current rule any brown over 14 inches is released.
Three stretches are catch-and-release all year. The JFK area starts 100 yards below the dam and runs about half a mile to the last hatchery effluent outfall in John F. Kennedy Park, flies and artificials only, barbless. Cow Shoals runs from the head of the shoal to the mouth of Canoe Creek, single barbless artificials only, and is closed to night fishing from October 1 through December 31, which covers the mid-October to November brown spawn Winkler describes. The Mossy area runs from the head of Dunham Shoals down to the end of Mossy Shoals, artificials or flies with barbless hooks. Collins Creek in JFK Park is a catch-and-release youth stream, fished sunrise to sunset. The 2025 code and older eRegulations text disagree on hook details at JFK and Mossy, so check the current guidebook.
Shoals by the mile, JFK to Ramsey
AGFC's map measures from the dam: JFK Park and the hatchery at the top, Cow Shoals Access at 5.5 miles, Barnett Access at 10, Lobo and Libby Shoal at 17, Dripping Springs at 24 and Ramsey at 29, with Pangburn and the Highway 305 bridge below. Barnett, at the Wilburn Road bridge above Winkley Shoals, is the biggest piece of public wading water on the river, and The Angler's Destination says its west side wades easier. At JFK you can wade nearly to the dam when the units are off. Below Barnett the channel narrows and wading gets harder.
The upper river holds the fish. AGFC biologist Christy Graham reported collecting trout at 405 per hour at Jon's Pocket in 2017 against 68 per hour near Ramsey, and said the agency stocks about 15,000 rainbows a month averaging 11 inches. Most of the bank is private and posted, so the state ramps and the river itself are your access; Winkler sends boaters to Swinging Bridge or Lobo when the dam end is muddy.
Sowbugs, olives and a caddis argument
Winkler's chart has sowbugs and pheasant tails every month, caddis from May through September, hoppers April through October and shad minnows from December. Guide Greg Seaton told On The Fly South that sowbugs make up about 60 percent of a Little Red trout's winter diet and fishes them as small as a 22. Perfect Fly puts blue-winged olives in March and April and again in the fall, midges strongest in January and February, and caddis from March through June; The Angler's Destination adds sulphurs into May and midges nearly all year. The caddis window is the one the sources disagree on, so the table spans both.
In winter, when threadfin shad come through the turbines, white shad patterns join the sowbug. None of the Little Red sources dates the kill precisely; the regional pattern is January into early March, as the lake cools into the low 40s.