Flooding report request

[Mark]

Looking for somewhere to go for Memorial Day weekend and after for a few days. How is the different sections of the Buffalo? What can we expect for Memorial Day weekend?

[Crooked Creek Angler]

It's easy to get online and check Buffalo river levels to see if it's floatable. At the moment it is a tad high for good fishing for my tastes, but definitely floatable.

It is coming down daily, by is of course heavily dependent upon rainfall. Research river level and weather forecast about a week before and plan accordingly.

best of luck!

[Mark]

Yeah I know I can look at river levels online but not familiar with Buffalo River so I don't know for sure what constitutes tad high, normal, slightly low, and very low.

[Al Agnew]

Geez, Mark, by now you ought to have read all the stuff I've posted about reading gauges on unfamiliar rivers.  If it's close to the median flow (in cfs, the little triangles), it's normal for that time of year.  If below the 25th percentile on the table, it's really low.  If above the 75th percentile on the table, it's too high.  Or at least that will get you in the ball park of the actual river conditions.  For instance, Buffalo near St. Joe gauge right now is reading 3980 cfs, which is way too high because it just got a three foot rise today, but up until the rise it was down to about 1500 cfs.  Median is 868 cfs, so it was still higher than normal, but 75th percentile is 2330 cfs, so it was probably fishable until the rise came.  (Note that the Buffalo has a huge range between what's normal this time of year and what's normal in late summer...by late summer, normal will probably be around 100 cfs.)

[Mark]

I'm a little slow Al

[grizwilson]

 

Looking for somewhere to go for Memorial Day weekend and after for a few days. How is the different sections of the Buffalo? What can we expect for Memorial Day weekend?

https://ar.water.usgs.gov/buffaloriver/

This basically does what Al'a observations do for you.

 

[Ham]

Nothing replaces personal experience on the different streams. 

Al's method is very useful, but think about the data. in the summer on stuff that is normally too low to float >75 % might be necessary to have an enjoyable float. 

[Al Agnew]

That's true, Ham, but there's a good chance that if it's over that 75th percentile figure it will be muddy.  However, you can look at the other info the gauges give you...if it's been dropping steadily for several days and is getting close to the 75th percentile figure, and it's normally a clear stream, it might be very fishable.  On the other hand, if it had a sharp rise just a day or so before and is getting down close to the 75th percentile, it probably hasn't had enough time to clear.  If it's normally a fairly murky stream, it might take longer to clear enough to fish after a big rise.

[riverfisher]

This is a quick resource that covers all the buffalo. http://www.buffaloriver.com/pages/floating/current-buffalo-river-level/

I fished the st. Joe area just before the rise last week. It was around 1800 cfs.  Fished 2 days and bite was on, but any over 12" were far and few between.