Help: River level

[flyfishmaster]

Ness,

If the Montauk gage is a 3' it is fishable, but the water speed would be fast and the at some point you may need a good water crossing pole to make it across the stream.

 

That has been my experience.    Also you can get away with throw some big streamers as well.

Later,

FFM

[Flysmallie]

22 minutes ago, flyfishmaster said:

Ness,

If the Montauk gage is a 3' it is fishable, but the water speed would be fast and the at some point you may need a good water crossing pole to make it across the stream.

 

 

You must not be familiar for the agility of the Ness, fly fishing ninja. 

[Al Agnew]

11 hours ago, ness said:

Sorry if this is a little bit of a hijack, but what's a good rule of thumb for fishability at the Montauk gage? My notes say 3' and it's currently only 1.9. 

Ness, as I've said many times before, I'd rather look at the flow in cfs than the height.  Right now the Montauk gauge is at 1.99 and 174 cfs.  No matter what the height of any gauge on these wadeable stream sections is, my rule of thumb is that anything under 200 cfs is wadeable without too much trouble if you're prudent, and anything over 300 cfs is getting close to unwadeable.  Within that 200-300 cfs range, you gotta use your own judgment but it ain't gonna be real easy wading.  Picture a river that's canoeable without having to scrape bottom, but not much higher than that, and you're looking at 125 to 175 cfs, which might give you an idea of how much water 174 cfs is.

[Johnsfolly]

Al -thanks for that information. I usuallylook at gage height more so tthan flow to determine if I am going to try to wade a stream. This gives me a second tool to consider before making a two to four hour run from home to fish. Thanks again. I do wish they had a way to provide water clarity measures as well. Nothing like expecting gin clear water and you get chocolate milk. 

[Ham]

BUT.... there are areas I can wade in the White River at 1400 CFS and areas that I can not wade at that level. 400 CFS is awesome on some places and nearly dry others. I find Al's discussion about 25% and 75% to be a lot more helpful.

 

[ness]

Thanks Al. I looked at a couple other smaller streams, and that looks like a good rule of thumb.