How Much Rain To Make Current Unfishable

[MuddlerMax]

Hello. I'm possibly coming down this weekend from Columbia to fish the Current, most likely Tan Vat or Baptist access. With storms on the forecast for tomorrow (Friday June 6) and saturday (June 7), I was just wondering your thoughts on how much rain this region can take before the Current looks like chocolate milk and is virtually unfishable. This will be my second time so I don't have much first hand experience of how much runoff will be flowing in the river. Just trying to save myself the trip if it will be bad fishing. Thanks! All input is appreciated.

[Nortrad]

I've fished the upper end as high as 200 cfs, but with this rain, it's going to go higher. Some have fished it well during gradual build up, off color water, big dark patterns/streamers/lures. I vote to reschedule, looks like a continous rain for while. I'd like to see the river hold at 150cfs or so, with the water table replenished.

My two cents.

[ColdWaterFshr]

You'll be fine. Unlike a lot ozark rivers, the upper Current takes a prolonged soaking to blow it out. And its been unusually low all spring. If the area does end up getting a lot of heavy, steady rain, keep an eye on this gauge and watch for sharp upward spikes: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site_no=07064533&PARAmeter_cd=00065,63160,00060

[jibro]

going off the guage at akers you should be fine, river looks a little low right now according to it

[3wt]

Looks good right now at the Montauk gauge http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?site_no=07064440. If there's been a lot of rain, and the ground is saturated, some heavy day long or night long rain will do it. But it looks lowish so unless the apocalypse rides in I don't see what the problem would be...but I'm not the weatherman.

[MuddlerMax]

Wow, thanks for all the input! Okay, so now what's the important thing to focus on from this USGS site...gauge height, discharge, precipitation, or combination of all three? What is a fishable gauge height? What is a high and low number to key in on?

Perhaps this has already been addressed in a previous post as it seems like it could be a fairly common question for new Current fishers; if so please refer me to that post.

Again, thanks for the invaluable input. You all may save me alot in wasted gas money if so!

[Terrierman]

Always focus on discharge. High number is 75th percentile. Low number is 25th percentile. Usable in general until you get to know the river and what the discharge relates to in terms of personal experience and preferences.

[ColdWaterFshr]

If you're fishing Tanvat and Baptist, the gauge at Montauk is probably more helpful since it is just upstream of those 2 areas. And Montauk is pretty much the headwaters. There isn't a whole lot of drainage above it (pigeon creek).

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site_no=07064440&PARAmeter_cd=00065,63160,00060

The Akers gauge is 15 or 16 miles downstream and several creeks enter in above it as well as the short lag or delay any heavy rain may have in affecting its gauge.

My experience with the Current River is around 400 cfs and it starts to get difficult for wading. On the Akers gauge - I think it is somewhere around the 2.5 ft or just above that, when the National Park Svc will actually close the river to boating.

If I were going this weekend I would WELCOME the rain --- it will only improve the fishing and decrease the crowds. It would take several inches of rain to make it unfishable, and then it would fall out pretty quickly (within hours) unless more inches of rain are received.

As Nortrad pointed out, big streamers. Throw those Muddlers!

[Al Agnew]

Seems like I've been saying this a lot lately...always look at the flow in cubic feet per second graph, not the level in feet graph. And look at the little triangles on the graph. Those triangles represent the median flow for the date in question, and the median flow is pretty much the normal flow for that date. If the river is anywhere close to the median, it's close to normal. Then look at the table "Daily discharge, cubic feet per second" on the same page. As Terrierman said, the 75th percentile figure on that table is a fairly decent indicator of what would be high but fishable. In the case of the Current at Montauk gauge, however, it hasn't been in existence long enough for that figure to be really good; the more years the gauge has been recording, the more data and the better the data is. The 75th percentile figure is only 171 cfs for today, and as ColdWater said, it can be fishable up to 400 cfs. (400 cfs is getting REALLY difficult to wade if you're a short person without a lot of ballast like me! Personally I find about 300 cfs to be the limit of comfortable wading.)

[Gavin]

Your fine wading till it's up a foot or several, 1.1 is dead low on the Akers gauge.