Minimum Flows

[Col Ron]

Greasy B

I am glad you are optomistic, I am also. I must say you are a little off base on one thing and truly I am not trying to start an argument. Unfortunately, many, many fisher-people and lazy guides still chum with corn. I wish it was outlawed. I have seen guides take catering size cans of corn in their boat with clients and come back with empty cans. It is disgusting, kills fish and irresponsible. I guide and won't allow it in my boat.

[sfiser]

waded the min flow yesterday at cotter. it was 650CFS according to the website. I really liked it, nice flow all the way through and it really wasnt any harder to wade than previous dead low. There is a nice flow now in water that was real slow and unproductive at dead low, and the fish are there now. Going to be a great thing for the river as a whole. I wet waded all over the river yesterday and only once got "balls deep", I was thinking it would be a much more difficult wade (and im sure in some places it is) but I was really suprised how easy I could get around.

[CFowler]

Still think I was over reacting? A few inches my xxx! Its pretty clear that was a lie. Fact is the generator cant handle the min flow of 590 (which they learned after implimentation) so how about 1200 instead. At the minimum (590) when we did see it, it was an additional 1.4 feet not a few inches by the way (according to coe graphs) but as it turns out that was irrelevant because you dont see that anyway, so its more like 3 feet. They are running it through a genrator at the White but not the Norfork (they use a siphon pipe there) and the Norfork sure is crowded these days. I'd say well executed at the Norfork, not the White at this point. Let's see.... Fed Govt/SWPA happy, boaters happy, resorts happy, guides happy, waders not too happy... Pretty clear what's goin on here folks. The other interesting social dynamic is that folks whom were duped dont want to talk about it or acknowledge it yet. We'll see how long it takes for folks to figure it out or come to grips. I am so shocked the Govt told us one thing and then totally did something else, that never happens!

[Ham]

The new flow levels are going to require some adjustments. The fish will adapt. The fishermen will adapt. There should be a stronger food supply for the trout and better water temps for the trout. The fish should be healthier and grow faster. IF you see this as a negative, I can't help you.

Conspiracy theories about cheating the average guy out wading oppurtuntities just seem whack-a- doodle to me. Get back with us when science shows us that the fish have been harmed by the extra flow and I may re-evaluate my opinion and possibly agree with you.

Here's an idea for displaced waders ; Used trout boats are plentiful and reasonably priced to own and operate. Use a boat to access a plenitude of "new" wading areas and enjoy learning new areas and new ways to fish.

[CFowler]

Good thought Ham, if they would have sold it as an extra two to three feet it wouldnt have gone very far. There is no theory here, if you cant figure out that SWPA is avoiding running min flow due to the generator functionality then you dont want to. This is the case though, I know some guys that work there. It wasnt to screw the little guy, rather that was an unintended consequence. It's not that times are hard and it could be tough to afford a boat but they shouldnt have to if they just executed it correctly. Oh and if its going to be this way watch the Norfork go down hill fast as 100 miles of wade fishing is going to get concentrated to 4 miles. Thats not good for the aquatic inverts for sure. How did that factor into the plan?

[sfiser]

Could the reason we are seeing so much water on the white be due to low DO levels and not minimum flow. Thats what i have heard but at 7 megawatts and 650 CFS the water is not difficult at all to wade and 6-7 inches more water on the chart (yes i know how to read the chart well)

[govslug]

I just read through this post from beginning to end . I am new to the river and see a lot of the same people contributing to this site. Been 3 years since this post started and the questions about min. flow were still new . What do some of you who posted on this think now ? Just curious.........I am sure there are pro's and con's with all of this .