Upper Meramec Water Levels

[405z06]

moguy1973- go to the river yourself. it is an absolute MUST that YOU know , in real terms, by YOUR eyeballs, what the (any) stream looks like, at certain levels. Please quit relying on others to interpret data for you. I'm not saying the people giving you advise are wrong, I'm just saying that you have to do things yourself. You must put in the time and effort to become an effective smallmouth angler. I love having river gauges on the streams I want to fish. They are invaluable. But, I also know what the gauges mean, or, how to interpret the numbers. That comes from experience. Yes, I know it is easier to ask someone if a certain stream is floatable and/or fishable. But wouldn't you rather know for yourself? That you know what the Meramec looks like at 1200 cfs? The Huzzah at 4.5 feet at Hwy 8? The Jacks Fork at 3 inches at Eminence? Numbers say a lot. It is up to us to find out what they mean.

Dude, maybe he just want to save the 1.5 hour drive if it's unfloatable. I have the USGS guages bookmarked, and I look at them often during the week if I am planning on going floating over the weekend, but I don't know truly know how to read them and I look at them all the time.

[Blazerman]

joeD, you seem to be missing the whole point of this website. It is for people to share information. People get on here to ask questions or share info and other people ask about it or comment from time to time.

Like 405 said, it is a lot easier to ask someone who lives near a river if it is floatable then to drive the 1.5 hours to see it and decide it is not. I know there are plenty of people who can look at the river level websites and know how high a certain river is but I would guess most cannot.

Cwc87, nice fish. Nice to see someone is getting after them even with all the rain.

[Greasy B]

This would be a great time for a headwaters float but If your not an experiences boatman your better off waiting for lower water. Well exacuted back ferrys and eddy turns are often the difference between an enjoyable trip and getting pinned against a sweeper, loosing your equipment and maybe more.

[Hog Wally]

Amen on that !

[moguy1973]

We ended up on the upper 6 miles of the Huzzah.

And JoeD, like the other's said, I would rather not drive an hour and a half to find that I can't float because the river is blown out. I knew at the levels that the middle Meramec was at that it was marginal to float and have any possibility to safely fish at the same time. You are right though, looking at a gauge I don't know what the river looks like at those levels since I'm relatively new to river fishing. But others on here have experienced what the river looks like at those levels and that kind of knowledge can determine if I really want to make the drive to try floating and fishing a particular stretch.

I do now know what the Huzzah looks like at 4.58' and 920cfs.

[LarrySTL]

We really ought to find a way to enforce a curfew, perhaps no posting between midnight and 4 am ?

[joeD]

moguy1973- Now you know something about the Huzzah, based on your experience. There is tremendous value in that. Contrary to popular opinion, I was giving you advise, not

dismissing your question. I get it. We all have a small window of opportunity to fish for smallies in our Ozark streams, and we want to make the most of it, and not make uninformed decisions. This forum is a great way to get that beta info. No question. I am not anti-info. I am anti- too much info- where we rely on so much input and opinion, that we are hamstrung in making decisions, fearing we will be wrong, then consequently doing something we didn't intend to do, like not going fishing. When it comes to fishing, I don't think there is such thing as a "waste of time."

I'm glad you went fishing, even though it wasn't at a place that wasn't your "first" choice. And you learned something, on your own, to boot. Experience is the best teacher.

[moguy1973]

We did get a view of the Meramec north of Steelville, so we kind of have a glimpse of what it looks like at those levels too, albeit a very quick glimpse as we drove over it. In all actuality it didn't look that bad from up above, but without being down on the water we couldn't get a feel for the flow rate. My buddy that was with me said he's floated the Meramec when the water was just up to the top of the slab at Outdoor Adventures but we decided on the shorter float on the Huzzah since I had a time limit and I really wanted SMB instead of trout.

[Hog Wally]

We got another little push of water around Stclair area. Brought the Little Meramec up 3' at my house. Really starting to be a bummer with all this high water. Guess I'm gonna go put lines in and forget about rod and reel for another weekend. I'm sure it's looking pretty way up by Sullivan but

[ozark trout fisher]

moguy1973- Now you know something about the Huzzah, based on your experience. There is tremendous value in that. Contrary to popular opinion, I was giving you advise, not

dismissing your question. I get it. We all have a small window of opportunity to fish for smallies in our Ozark streams, and we want to make the most of it, and not make uninformed decisions. This forum is a great way to get that beta info. No question. I am not anti-info. I am anti- too much info- where we rely on so much input and opinion, that we are hamstrung in making decisions, fearing we will be wrong, then consequently doing something we didn't intend to do, like not going fishing. When it comes to fishing, I don't think there is such thing as a "waste of time."

I'm glad you went fishing, even though it wasn't at a place that wasn't your "first" choice. And you learned something, on your own, to boot. Experience is the best teacher.

I actually kind of know what you're saying. Too many times I've gotten advice (not necessarily on here, but just in general) that a river is definitely not fishable and gone there anyway to find out that apparently my definition of "fishable" is a lot wider than whoever told me that. Some people are of the opinion that a river isn't fishable if there isn't 2 or 3 feet of visibilty, which is pretty ridiculous. By that definiton, some of the rivers I like to fish (like the Bourbeuse) are basically never fishable.

So to me, if it's just a question about whether a river is too high to be good fishing, I usually go for it. Worst case scenario you get skunked fishing a muddy river, no harm done. Where the advice does come in handy is when you're talking about river levels that could actually be dangerous. And that's where this site, and others comes in handy. Though I will say, as much as I trust what most people say on here, I'm never making that final determination based on what someone told me on a fishing forum. I'm taking a look for myself. Usually it's pretty obvious when a river isn't safe to float.