History of the Little Red River and Its World-Record Brown Trout

The Little Red River has a way of making you slow down.

For me, the Little Red became personal in 2013 when I moved to Arkansas to go to school at Harding University. At first, it was a place to fish and get away. Before long, it became my refuge. It became one of the main reasons I did not want to leave. In a very real way, home started to feel like it was on that river.

As a fishing guide, I have watched fog lift off the water more mornings than I can count. I have seen first-time anglers catch their first trout and experienced anglers stare at a brown trout as if it were the first fish they had ever seen. It is easy to enjoy those moments without thinking about everything that had to happen for them to be possible.

I love the Little Red River. Many of my favorite memories have happened on its water, and I know I am not the only one who feels that way. The river is special because of its history, its fish, and the people who have cared for it. But it is also special because it has a way of becoming part of your life.

The trout fishery below Greers Ferry Dam was not formed by one decision or one group of people. It grew from a flood-control project, cold water, stocked rainbow trout, a bold effort to introduce brown trout, and decades of decisions that shaped what the river became.

The history of the Little Red River is not a story of perfect planning or perfect protection. It is the story of a river that has done a great deal with what it was given.

The Little Red River Before Trout

The Little Red River existed long before Greers Ferry Lake, Greers Ferry Dam, or trout fishing near Heber Springs. It carried warm water through north-central Arkansas before joining the White River. Native warmwater fish lived in it, and the river was part of the land and communities around it.

Like many rivers in the White River Basin, it could also flood. By the middle of the 1900s, leaders were looking for ways to reduce flood damage and produce electricity. They saw the river as a resource that could serve the people of Arkansas for generations.

That vision led to one of the largest changes the Little Red River had ever faced.

Greers Ferry Dam Changed the River

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building Greers Ferry Dam in March 1959. Construction was completed in December 1962. The dam was built mainly to control floods and generate hydroelectric power. It stands more than 240 feet tall and stretches more than 1,700 feet across the river.

President John F. Kennedy dedicated Greers Ferry Dam on October 3, 1963. Thousands of people came to Heber Springs for the event. In his remarks, Kennedy looked beyond the dam’s immediate purpose. He spoke about recreation, economic growth, and setting aside places that future generations could enjoy. Commercial power generation began in July 1964.

The dam worked as designed, but it also changed the river below it. Water released from deep inside Greers Ferry Lake was much colder than the water that had once flowed there. That cold water was no longer well suited for many of the native sportfish that had lived below the dam.

At the same time, it created something new: about 30 miles of coldwater habitat in the foothills of the Ozarks.

No one standing at the dam dedication could have known exactly what that cold water would become. Yet people soon saw another kind of value in the Little Red River.

Trout Fishing Begins Below Greers Ferry Dam

The Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery was established in 1965. Its purpose was to help replace fishing opportunities lost when cold dam releases changed the habitat below Greers Ferry Dam.

In 1966, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began stocking rainbow trout in the Little Red River. Those fish proved that the new tailwater could support trout and give anglers a new reason to visit Heber Springs.

Rainbow trout are still stocked in the Little Red. They have provided generations of families with a chance to catch trout close to home. They have also supported guides, resorts, marinas, restaurants, stores, and other local businesses. A fish stocked into the river may look like a small thing, but its effect can reach far beyond the water.

The rainbow trout fishery was a success. The next chapter began with a group of anglers willing to try something that had not worked elsewhere in Arkansas.

How Brown Trout Came to the Little Red River

The short version of this history often says brown trout were introduced in 1977. That is the date the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission uses in its current overview of the Greers Ferry Tailwater. The longer story begins a little earlier.

According to the Arkansas Fly Fishers, club members placed 20,000 fertilized brown trout eggs in 40 protective boxes along Cow Shoals on December 7, 1975. The eggs were from the Bitterroot strain and had been purchased from a hatchery in Pennsylvania. Similar efforts on the Spring River had failed, but the anglers believed the Little Red might be different.

The eggs hatched. A small brown trout caught near Cow Shoals the following year gave the group proof that the effort had worked. In 1978, Arkansas Fly Fishers and Mid-South Fly Fishers added 5,000 brown trout fingerlings to help strengthen the young population.

The brown trout did more than survive. They began reproducing on their own.

That fact still matters today. The Little Red River’s brown trout are now a wild, self-sustaining population. Every brown trout in the river is connected to fish that survived, found suitable spawning water, and produced the next generation.

It was an unlikely beginning. A few boxes of eggs placed in an Arkansas tailwater became one of the most famous brown trout fisheries in the world.

The World-Record Brown Trout

By the 1980s, the Little Red River was producing large brown trout. The cold water, available food, spawning habitat, and the ability of brown trout to survive from one year to the next gave some fish time to reach sizes few anglers had ever seen.

Then came May 9, 1992.

Howard “Rip” Collins was fishing near the Swinging Bridge area when he hooked a brown trout on a 1/32-ounce olive marabou jig and 4-pound-test line. The fish measured 40 1/4 inches and weighed 40 pounds, 4 ounces.

It became the all-tackle world-record brown trout.

The record stood for 17 years. The fish is still recognized as the 4-pound-line-class world record, and its size remains hard to understand until you stand beside a mount or photograph of it.

Rip Collins’ catch changed the way the fishing world saw the Little Red River. A small Arkansas tailwater was no longer simply a good place to catch trout. It had grown a wild brown trout larger than any brown trout officially recorded before it.

The record belongs to Rip, but the story behind it belongs to many people. It reaches back to the anglers who planted eggs at Cow Shoals, the workers who raised and stocked trout, the people who cared for public access, and the generations who kept showing up for the river.

The River Kept Proving Its Value

The history of the Little Red River is filled with people, agencies, and groups that all played a part in what the river became.

Some of that work happened because it was someone’s job. Federal workers built and operated the dam. Hatchery workers raised trout to replace lost fishing opportunities. State biologists studied the fishery and managed its regulations. That work matters, even when it is simply part of a public responsibility.

Other parts of the story came from people choosing to do more. Anglers took a chance on brown trout eggs. Guides built businesses around sharing the river with others. Property owners, resorts, conservation groups, local leaders, and visitors all became part of the river’s story.

In 1988, anglers and fishing groups even helped raise money so the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission could purchase land at Cow Shoals. That protected public access near the same water where the brown trout story began.

Rip Collins later helped form Friends of the Little Red River. Other groups followed with their own efforts to protect habitat, improve access, share information, and keep the river in front of decision-makers.

People have not always agreed on what the river needs. They still do not. But for more than 60 years, the Little Red has kept proving that it is worth the effort.

The Challenges Facing the Little Red River

The Little Red River entered 2026 with a proud history, but history alone cannot protect a fishery.

One of its greatest challenges is that the Little Red is two kinds of trout fishery at the same time. Its rainbow trout fishery depends heavily on stocking. Rainbow trout are placed in the river to provide fishing opportunities, and compared with wild brown trout, they usually have a shorter life in the river. Some are harvested, many are caught and released, and others are lost over time to natural pressures. At the same time, the river holds a cherished naturalized brown trout population. These brown trout are not native to Arkansas, but they now reproduce naturally and depend on the river for every part of their life cycle.

The needs of these two fisheries often overlap, but they are not exactly the same. The Little Red needs enough stocked rainbows to support anglers, families, guides, and the local economy. It also needs the water quality, habitat, spawning areas, and long-term stability required for wild brown trout to survive and grow. Managing one part of the fishery without considering the other risks losing something important.

Greers Ferry Dam was built for flood control and power generation. The needs of a 30-mile trout river do not always fit neatly inside the operating rules of a dam built for other purposes. River flows can change quickly. Long periods of high water can limit safe fishing and access. Long periods of low water can allow parts of the river to warm.

Water temperature can become a serious concern, especially farther from the dam. Trout stocking, the number and size of fish in different sections, growing development, changing vegetation, public access, and the protection of spawning areas all shape the river we experience today.

As a guide, I see both sides of the Little Red. I see days that remind me why the river became famous. I also see stretches of water that are capable of offering more than they do right now.

Those concerns do not erase the river’s success. They show us that the work is not finished.

How the Little Red River Made It to 2026

The Little Red River has endured because it is tougher than it looks and because people have continued to respond when it needed help.

The river has lived through major floods, drought, warm summers, heavy generation, long periods of low flow, changes in stocking, fishing pressure, development, and shifts in management. Its brown trout have continued to reproduce. Stocked rainbows have continued to give families a place to fish. People have continued to launch boats, wade shoals, open businesses, collect data, ask questions, and work toward better answers.

That does not mean every mile is as healthy as it should be. It does mean the river still has something solid to build on.

The lesson of Little Red River history is not that the river will take care of itself. The lesson is that good things have happened when people did the work, asked better questions, and treated it like a river worth caring for.

A River Worth Being Thankful For

I make my living in a boat, but the river does not belong to me or to any guide. It does not belong only to the people who live beside it, the agencies that manage it, or the anglers who travel here to fish it.

We are simply the people who get to care for it right now.

More than 60 years after Greers Ferry Dam changed the Little Red River, we can still push away from the bank on a cool morning and cast for trout beneath the Ozark hills. We can still watch a child hold a rainbow trout for the first time. We can still see a wild brown rise from the moss and remind us what this river can produce.

There are real challenges ahead, and meeting them will require honesty, cooperation, and a clear view of the entire river. But it should also begin with thankfulness.

We get to chase trout through roughly 30 miles of cold water in the foothills of the Ozarks. We get to inherit a fishery shaped by public work, local effort, and anglers who kept believing it mattered. And, for a little while, we get to help write the next part of the Little Red River’s history.

The History of the Little Red River: From Greers Ferry Dam to a World-Record Brown Trout