First Crooked Creek Float, Water Level

[npierceuark]

I was checking the gauges today and I am little worried the water is too low for a float. Since I have never been I can not say this for certain but by looking at the averages it is definitely less than normal. Any of you guys near there or know if Snow to Kelly's would be doable in a canoe with this water level? I appreciate the help

[cnr]

Showing 10.75 on the gauge right now, It's doable at that level. Gonna be bumpy right at the Snow access. It's better when it's above 11' but we have floated many times below that level and done just fine, and me and my fishing partner are big guys.

Make sure you post a report and pictures. Oh, and make sure you take some 2.5"-3" mustard colored tubes. Lots of crawfish in that stream and the SMBs will hit them hard. Drift them through the really fast water with an adjacent slow eddy and the smallies will absolutely crush it. Kind of like nymphing for trout but with a tube jig, just let it drift down through the fast water.

And I would recommend taking your felt-soled wading boots. There are some very slick flat rock bottomed areas that are hard to walk in without felt.

[npierceuark]

Thanks for the advice cnr,

I always carry a few different packs of those small tubes, one of my favorites for the smallies. And felt shoes are not a bad idea. I was on the buffalo a week ago and those round slick rocks will cause some havoc.

[Ham]

The guage values changes when they changed Kelly's slab. My absolute minimum is 9.80, but you could go lower just a lot more work and wear on a boat hull.

[Al Agnew]

I guess it's time again for my little lesson on reading gauges...

If you aren't familiar with what the level in feet on a gauge translates to on a given stream, look instead at the flow in cubic feet per second. Right now Crooked Creek is flowing 109 cfs. As a general rule of thumb, anything over 100 cfs on an average size Ozark stream, and it will be floatable, though you may scrape bottom in wide riffles or split channels. Anything under about 75 cfs and you'll scrape bottom in a lot of the riffles and probably have to drag the canoe over some of them. Under 50 cfs and you'll be walking a lot.

I wish everybody would get used to using the flow in cfs all the time. It's a whole lot easier to envision what an unfamiliar river is doing if you report the flow and not the level. I have no clue what 8.5 feet on the gauge means on an unfamiliar stream, but I know how much 100 cfs is no matter which stream it is. I've gotten so used to paying attention only to the flow in cfs that I can't even tell you what a given level in feet means on Big River or the Meramec, my two "home streams". But when I come to a stream section without a gauge nearby and see the nearest riffle, I can tell you within 10-20 cfs what it's flowing just by looking at the volume of water going through the riffle.

[cnr]

Thanks Al. Good advice. Do you have a rule of thumb for high CFS, when it may be a little too fast for an average canoeist? I'm guessing 250-300. I know I don't like to wade the upper Current outside of Montauk when it's over 200 CFS, too dangerous. But man do I like fishing it between 150 and 200 with jerkbaits!

[zback]

Went last week when gauge was 11.0-11.06 and flow was in 120's. We floated Pyatt to Snow and we dragged in 2-3 spots and had to pick it up. Caught about 20 smallies, biggest being about 17 inches. I can't imagine floating that stretch with the water very much lower, because you would be dragging between every pool.

[Al Agnew]

Thanks Al. Good advice. Do you have a rule of thumb for high CFS, when it may be a little too fast for an average canoeist? I'm guessing 250-300. I know I don't like to wade the upper Current outside of Montauk when it's over 200 CFS, too dangerous. But man do I like fishing it between 150 and 200 with jerkbaits!

That's a little more difficult, because a lot depends upon the normal size of the stream. A stream like Crooked Creek, that normally flows less than 150 cfs, will seem far higher at 300 cfs than a stream like the Meramec at Steelville, which normally flows 300 or more cfs. What I do as a general rule is look at the table "Daily discharge, cubic feet per second". One of the figures in the table is "75th percentile", which means that 75% of the years of record, the stream was flowing less than that on that date. It's a fairly good approximation of the highest the stream can be and still be floatable and fishable, but you can figure that with a flow like that, it will high and fast. For Crooked Creek on June 1st, that figure is 426 cfs. So I'd figure you'd be alright if it's flowing under 400 cfs.

[Plastic_worm]

I floated Pyatt to Snow Saturday and drug at every shoal. I wouldn't do that section again at the current conditions. Not b/c of the dragging but I think the noise spooked the larger more seasoned smallies. I keep a log of my float trip's with conditions of that float and refer to them when I make a plan. It's been a really useful tool over the last few yrs. I usually do snow to the slab but opted for a shorter float. The fishing was ok but it's been better. You can read more at:

http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/

[kkparks_3]

I floated Pyatt to Snow Saturday and drug at every shoal. I wouldn't do that section again at the current conditions. Not b/c of the dragging but I think the noise spooked the larger more seasoned smallies. I keep a log of my float trip's with conditions of that float and refer to them when I make a plan. It's been a really useful tool over the last few yrs. I usually do snow to the slab but opted for a shorter float. The fishing was ok but it's been better. You can read more at:

http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/

How long does that float from Pyatt to Snow usually take you? I've been looking at doing that one for a couple of years, but didn't know how long it would take to do it.