Ballpark CFS good for fishing

[MrErickson]

Hi guys,

Tuesday the James was pushing 1750 Cubic Feet per Second at Boaz, according to the USGS.  I put my kayak in at Shelvin for a bit and paddled around.  But it was too fast for me to do any serious fishing without having a take out plan (down near Galena with the rate the water swept me).

Did anybody get on the river Monday or Tuesday?  

Can you give me any ballpark advice for river flow and/or height that are good for floating or paddling?  I've canoed in high water like that before - in my younger dumber days.  But I always had a take out plan downstream somewhere.  That's floating and "steering".  I've got this new yak so I can paddle upstream from an access, fish back down and not arrange a shuttle of any kind.  Occasionally I'll team up with a buddy and float/shuttle.

So what's a good number for paddling upstream?  And how about just a good flow number for floating down?  Do the outfitters have a "high water" point where they will stop renting?

Sitting here bored, wishin I was fishin.  

[Al Agnew]

A rule of thumb...far from foolproof but a good starting point, is to look at the table showing the mean, median, 75th percentile, etc.  On the same river gauge page.  The 75th percentile figure is somewhat usable as a guide to the highest flow that will still be fishable.  Right now, the James at Boaz is flowing 1200 cfs and the 75th percentile figure for today is 1150 cfs.  Which means that the river is still quite high and would be tough to fish even if clear enough.  Only you can decide how much work you want to do paddling upstream, but for me, if the river is much above normal I don't want to work that hard.  If it's up around that 75th percentile mark, you know that there will be heavy current, and worse, a lot of the places, where you could normally wade or walk a gravel bar and pull the boat up through riffles, will be underwater.  By the way, "normal" is the median flow on that same table (or the little triangles on the graph), which for today at Boaz is 400 cfs.

[RSBreth]

Shelvin is hard go upstream even at normal summer flows - the easiest for me ( in a solo canoe btw ) is H.L. Kerr or the Galena access. Both involve a land portage, but make for easy floats back to the put-in. And another tip - I found out last year showing another new 'Yak guy the river just up from H.L Kerr is easy for me with a single blade paddle in the canoe - but almost impossible with a double blade because you need to paddle up right next to the shore in the slack water - the double blade just whacks the shore and isn't able to do it and trying to use it a like a single blade you can't get the leverage you can with a single. So get a back up single blade in your Yak for tough spots.

[MrErickson]

Awesome info guys. Thanks for taking the time. Hopefully soon I can start posting some reports with pics of hogs and slabs. 

[chi0082]

When the water is high is the fishing still good for white bass by blunks? or do they just run way up river?

[Ryan Walker]

On 3/17/2016 at 0:56 PM, chi0082 said:

When the water is high is the fishing still good for white bass by blunks? or do they just run way up river?

I fish wade fish Taylor until the gauge height (at Galena) shows 6.8ft, or no more than about 1900 cfs discharge. Right now it's at 5.85, which in my opinion is perfect. It creates some great slack water behind the gravel humps....Cold front will be your biggest problem now...Water temp a week ago was 52ish, probably back in the high 40's now, which will shut them down until it warms back up. 

[chi0082]

19 hours ago, Ryan Walker said:

I fish wade fish Taylor until the gauge height (at Galena) shows 6.8ft, or no more than about 1900 cfs discharge. Right now it's at 5.85, which in my opinion is perfect. It creates some great slack water behind the gravel humps....Cold front will be your biggest problem now...Water temp a week ago was 52ish, probably back in the high 40's now, which will shut them down until it warms back up. 

Thanks Ryan. I appreciate the feedback.

Where exactly is Taylor shoals? Everyone tells me something different, some say it's a quarter mile up from blunks, others say 1/2 mile, and some say about a mile up to the bend. I'm fishing from the bank, so how far up the "dirt trail" do I walk/drive to reach Taylor shoals, and what am I looking for?

[Ryan Walker]

5 hours ago, chi0082 said:

Thanks Ryan. I appreciate the feedback.

Where exactly is Taylor shoals? Everyone tells me something different, some say it's a quarter mile up from blunks, others say 1/2 mile, and some say about a mile up to the bend. I'm fishing from the bank, so how far up the "dirt trail" do I walk/drive to reach Taylor shoals, and what am I looking for?

Walk til you hit gravel! Taylor is the first gravel bar you can walk on up-stream from Blunk. You can't miss it. The dirt trail will end, and you'll be on the shoal(s).