Water Level Question

[jkilroy]

Just wondering how long it takes for water levels to return to normal on the Norfork after they stop generation.

-JK

[fiveweight]

Depends on how far downstream you're talking.

Here's a pretty good link with the most detail I've ever seen. I'd love to hear from some of the local gurus how accurate they think this is, I've always heard and used the 2 mph figure but I guess it does probably depend on how many generators they turn on/off. For Norfork, since it only has 2 generators, the 2 mph figure is probably accurate for both rise and fall, so if you're fishing at the dam the answer is almost immediately and if you're fishing at the confluence the answer is a couple hours.

http://www.hisplaceresort.net/River-flow.htm

[Don Allenbaugh]

At the catch and release area at Ackerman 2 units will start in about 1 hour and 15 minutes (depending on how they turn them on). It takes a good 3 hours before it is down to safely wade. 1 unit takes about 2 hours to come up and again about 3 to go down. Those are the times I use for my safe wading but you can bet there are those who will use different times for themselves. In any case at Ackerman if you are up by the island and it starts to come up, you need to high tail it out of there because you have a very short window to get out safely. If you are downstream from Ackerman and you notice it is coming up you have less time and sometimes it is best to just get out on the wrong side and hope a boat will pick you up or someone will drive around and get you. You are not going to make it across and you could buy the farm if you try.

If John Berry sees this I hope he will throw in his opinion as he fishes there quite a bit too.

[John Berry]

Don has it right.