Safe Water Level For Boating

[Ted Calcaterra]

Need some expert advice for those who know the river. I have a 1648 Blazer with 25hp jet and want to fish Gasconade above the Big Piney Wednesday. I am hoping the water is down enough. What should the gage read at Jerome for safe boating? I am fairly experienced and have done it in low flows in summer. I don't want to fight big water. Thanks for the help

[Al Agnew]

It's still going to be pretty big water. Right now it's flowing around 3500 cfs at Hazelgreen and nearly 10,000 cfs at Jerome. The Jerome gauge is right below the mouth of the Little Piney. The Big Piney is dumping close to 2000 cfs, the Little Piney around 500 cfs, which means that immediately above the Big Piney it will probably be flowing around 7000 cfs. Normal flows for this time of year in that area are probably 1500-1600 cfs. When you did it in low water it was probably flowing no more than 700-800 cfs, and possibly less.

I can't tell you from this distance how clear it might be...seems like the rivers are clearing fast, though staying very high for this time of year because of well saturated ground water tables making all the springs flow very high volume and every little creek is still flowing strongly as well. But the Gasconade doesn't drop fast, so it won't drop very much between now and Wednesday. I suspect it's still well up in the low-growing willows and covering most or all the gravel bars.