Lower Section Harriet Gauge Help!

[Chico]

For you guys that have done alot of fishing on the lower section of the buffalo, in your opinion at what level does the fishing start to suffer? We do this trip every year and we went when it was over 7' one year and I'll never do that again. Fishing was terrible and the river was way too fast for our taste. We had originally planned on going saturday the 17th but scratched that due to the cold front and all the water. We then backed it up to the following monday and we're still debating that depending on what the river level is. I know there's a lot of variables to this equation with all the cold weather and high water but we're most concerned about the conditions for fishing. Last year we went at around 3.5' and smoked em pretty good. If we don't go monday we have to back it off til either the 28th or 29th. Thanks in advance guys!