Millwood Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time lake level and outflow report from Millwood Lake Dam, visit the Corps Little Rock office website.
(updated 3-19-2026) Mike Siefert at Millwood Lake Guide Service said Thursday morning that white bass are running up the Little River, crappie are biting shallow and the big bass are on the move. Angler Gary Bortz of Little Rock was fishing with Mike and they boated between 17 and 25 “big white bass from 2 to 3 pounds on an afternoon run” in the middle of the white bass run up the river. “What a joy to work for and an afternoon of laughter and fighting hard-charging white bass with a variety of lures and baits.”
Millwood Lake elevation as of Wednesday was about 5 inches above normal pool and falling; Millwood Lake Dam was releasing about 6,400 cfs, and tailwater was near 233 feet and rising. Surface temperature over the past week continued fluctuating, ranging 62-67 degrees depending on location and the time of day. Clarity along Little River is heavy stain and low visibility, with 10-15 inches visibility depending on location; typical Millwood lighter stain is found in the oxbows, ranging 15-30 inches in many locations.
Clarity in Horseshoe and McGuire oxbows continues to be good this week and is over 18 inches visibility.
* Largemouth bass are responding well, moving shallow, and continue roaming flats and bedding areas. With the increased surface and lake pool temperature again this week, and on warmer, sunny afternoons, we continue seeing male bass, and a few very large females, roaming shallow in backs of flats outside creek channels where there are spawning areas. A few beds are beginning to show up. Females continue to be observed over the past week cruising grass and vegetation lines in the warmer flats and creek channels in and out of new lily pad blooms.
Bass will respond to a variety of lures. Where you find the warmest, clearest water, away from muddy current of the river, will be where you find bait and bass. In the back of the creeks, Millwood State Park and the oxbows, are where you can find the warmest water and are the best bet to begin searching. Brazalo Lures’ Strutter 2.0 Bladed Jigs and 501 tandem willow blade spinnerbaits continue working well for black bass from 12-19 inches in backs of creek channels. They will continue getting reactions in the oxbows on points near stumps, lily pads and creek channel flats and bends, near vegetation and fresh lily pad blooms, using curly tail grub trailer, with best colors over the past couple of weeks being white, Spot Remover and Millwood Mayhem Bream and using a split-tail Bass Assassin 3-inch FFS Split Tail Shad trailer on their Strutter 2.0 Bladed Jigs. Slow, stop and go will draw random reactions if you are in fairly clear to moderate stained water at 1-4 feet depth.
In the oxbows, and along dropping structure into the 9-10 feet depth range, heavy ¾- and 1-ounce Rat-L-Traps in Red Shad, Red Chrome Craw and Millwood Magic will draw random reactions in the 8-12 feet drops on a slow jigging retrieve, and ⅜-ounce chrome/blue Spinner Rat-L-Traps (i.e., the Tail Spinners) will get a reaction when the bass roam into new blooming lily pads flats of 4-8 feet depths on warmer, bright sun days. These will finesse well through the lily pad stems around vegetation. Red Chrome Crawfish, Red Chrome or Natural Crawfish (46N), and 1-knocker Millwood Magic Rat-L-Traps were also getting a few reactions from a few pre-spawn fish from 6-8 feet deep near vertical drops.
Bass Assassin Shads in Salt and Pepper Silver Phantom, Houdini, Panhandle Moon and Chico’s Red Ear, in the 5- to 7-inch shad sizes, Texas-rigged on small, light wire Owner hooks, will draw random reactions in heavy vegetation or on stumps, and near cypress tree knees, on warmer, sunny afternoons in the 3-6 feet depth zones.
* The migration of the white bass up Little River for the annual spring spawn is pretty much in full swing, and we are seeing a lot of action and anglers running up and down Little River near Wilton Landing. A few other white bass anglers we spoke with at Wilton Landing recently said they caught around 15-25 2- to 3.5-pound white bass schools between Wilton Landing and Patterson Shoals. They also said they caught 10-15 nice-sized spotted bass mixed in with the whites last week, hitting crankbaits in the same general vicinity as the whites. Most definitely the white bass are feeding and moving further upriver this week.
We are finding area anglers connecting with nice healthy 2- to 3-pounders from Brown’s Slough all the way up Little River past Wilton Landing, and these big white bass are continuing moving up river again this week on primary and secondary points near deeper vertical drops into Little River. Midday and mid-afternoons were best search periods on high sunny afternoons. Bomber Fat Free Guppy, Fat Free Fingerlings in Tennessee Shad and Citrus Shad patterns, half-ounce Rat-L-Traps, Chuck’N Spins, Rooster Tails, Little Georges, Rocket Shads, UnderSpins with a 3-inch white grub, and Beetle Spins were all working best.
* Crappie have greatly improved over the past week of increased water temperatures in the 5-12 feet depths on jigs. Crappie were even hitting our bass spinnerbaits in McGuire and Horseshoe oxbows, as we were bass fishing and caught several more huge crappie from 2-2.5 pounds each. They have also improved in planted brush near Saratoga Landing and the junction of Little River and Saline River in the main lake body in front of the Millwood Dam over the past week.
Lots of the crappie we are seeing are still holding in the 10- to 11-foot deep zones on brushpiles, but we are beginning to see them move over the last week into the cypress trees in 4-6 feet depths.
* Catfish continue biting well on trotlines in Little River current, upriver, set between White Cliffs and McGuire Lake Oxbow this week. Catfish guys had fairly good luck with channel cats using chicken gizzards, livers, hearts and cut buffalo set on trotlines from 9-15 feet deep in river current.
For more details, visit the Millwood Lake Guide Service webpage.
DeGray Lake
For the most updated lake level at DeGray Lake, click here.
(updated 3-5-2026) Capt. Darryl Morris of Family Fishing Trips (501-844-5418) reports that he’s been regularly fishing DeGray Lake, along with lakes Ouachita and Greeson the past couple of weeks. Water temperature is perfect. Black crappie are already spawning, while white crappie are still moving up onto staging brushpiles. Tightlining over the staging tops and casting jigs both have been productive.
(updated 3-12-2026) Randy Plyler with Plyler Outdoors Guide Service (870-210-0522) reports that black bass can be caught shallow on finesse worms, Carolina rigs, lipless crankbaits and square bills.
De Queen Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time lake level and outflow report from De Queen Lake, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.
Dierks Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time lake level and outflow report from Dierks Lake, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.
(updated 3-12-2026) AGFC Fisheries staff note that if bass production in tournaments is any indication of how good the bass fishing is, Dierks Lake should definitely be among an angler’s target destinations. Based on results from the 2025 Arkansas Tournament Information Program Report, this lake in Howard and Sevier counties in southwest Arkansas was the state’s top tournament fishing destination last year. Biologists use data on the numbers of anglers, fish caught, average weights of fish and numbers of fish weighing 5 pounds or greater to develop key indicators of fishing quality. Those indicators are compiled into rankings for each body of water to help keep tabs on trends in tournament angling and offer anglers a peek into where they may want to schedule their next event.
While mainstays like Lake Dardanelle, Millwood Lake and Lake Ouachita continued to appear in the top rankings of the ATIPR, Dierks snuck into the report for the first time and did so in impressive fashion. During five tournaments at the lake in 2025, the average winning weight was 20.77 pounds. Anglers also brought 22 fish to the scales in excess of 5 pounds, despite the low number of overall tournaments and tournament anglers.
“At 13,600 acres, Dierks is one of our smaller reservoirs, especially of those created by the [Army Corps of Engineers],” Eric Naas, Black Bass Biologist for the AGFC, said. “It’s tucked away in southwest Arkansas, so it’s sort of a hidden gem, but local anglers really enjoy fishing there. This is just the first time we had enough tournament results to include it in the rankings.”
Lake Greeson Tailwater
For the most updated Narrows Dam generation schedule from SWEPCO, click here.
Lake Greeson
For the most updated lake level at Lake Greeson, click here.
(updated 3-5-2026) Capt. Darryl Morris of Family Fishing Trips (501-844-5418) says he’s been doing his fishing among three major southwest Arkansas lakes: Greeson, DeGray and Ouachita. He reports that water temperature “is perfect.”
He says that black crappie are already spawning, while white crappie are still moving up onto staging brushpiles. Tightlining over the staging tops and casting jigs both have been productive.