Water levels?

[BIG BASS]

Lookin for some info on water gauges for upper eleven point. Not familiar with a good idea of what to expect reading flow of height for this river. Thanks!!

[Al Agnew]

14 minutes ago, BIG BASS said:

Lookin for some info on water gauges for upper eleven point. Not familiar with a good idea of what to expect reading flow of height for this river. Thanks!!

The only gauge is at Riverton, so doesn't really tell you much about the conditions above Greer Spring.  However, you can get a pretty decent idea of how close the river is to normal for this time of year simply by looking at the flow in cfs graph.  The little triangles on the graph are the median flow for each day, which is a pretty good approximation of normal.  Note that "normal" in the spring is well above "normal" in mid-summer.  Right now the gauge is showing 1760 cfs, median is 1030.  So it's well above normal.  But you can see on the graph that it was hanging well above normal earlier in the week, and then if you look at the gauge height in feet graph, you'll see it rose about 0.4 foot in the last three days.  So you can tell the river has been a little high but fairly stable, and didn't get a big rise.  So my guess is it's high but probably still fishable below Greer, and would probably be a little high but still fishable upstream from Greer.  There's a gauge for Greer Spring, too, and it shows a median flow of 452 and a flow today of 659 cfs.  Subtract Greer Spring from the river gauge flow, and you get about 1100 cfs for the flow minus the spring, but there are also some tributaries and other springs that come in between Greer and Riverton.  My guess would be the median flow of the river just above Greer would be about 400-450 cfs this time of year (median flow of river at Riverton--1030, minus median flow of Greer Spring--452, equals 578 cfs, and then subtract about 25% of that to account for the tributaries below Greer.  So it's a little high above Greer but not too bad--I don't get too worried about it a stream being too high to fish until it's flowing about twice the median flow.

[BIG BASS]

45 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

The only gauge is at Riverton, so doesn't really tell you much about the conditions above Greer Spring.  However, you can get a pretty decent idea of how close the river is to normal for this time of year simply by looking at the flow in cfs graph.  The little triangles on the graph are the median flow for each day, which is a pretty good approximation of normal.  Note that "normal" in the spring is well above "normal" in mid-summer.  Right now the gauge is showing 1760 cfs, median is 1030.  So it's well above normal.  But you can see on the graph that it was hanging well above normal earlier in the week, and then if you look at the gauge height in feet graph, you'll see it rose about 0.4 foot in the last three days.  So you can tell the river has been a little high but fairly stable, and didn't get a big rise.  So my guess is it's high but probably still fishable below Greer, and would probably be a little high but still fishable upstream from Greer.  There's a gauge for Greer Spring, too, and it shows a median flow of 452 and a flow today of 659 cfs.  Subtract Greer Spring from the river gauge flow, and you get about 1100 cfs for the flow minus the spring, but there are also some tributaries and other springs that come in between Greer and Riverton.  My guess would be the median flow of the river just above Greer would be about 400-450 cfs this time of year (median flow of river at Riverton--1030, minus median flow of Greer Spring--452, equals 578 cfs, and then subtract about 25% of that to account for the tributaries below Greer.  So it's a little high above Greer but not too bad--I don't get too worried about it a stream being too high to fish until it's flowing about twice the median flow.

Al i appreciate it. In your opinion what is the most scenic stretch of the eleven point? Wanting to do a 2 day 1 night next weekend 

[snagged in outlet 3]

10 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

The only gauge is at Riverton, so doesn't really tell you much about the conditions above Greer Spring.  However, you can get a pretty decent idea of how close the river is to normal for this time of year simply by looking at the flow in cfs graph.  The little triangles on the graph are the median flow for each day, which is a pretty good approximation of normal.  Note that "normal" in the spring is well above "normal" in mid-summer.  Right now the gauge is showing 1760 cfs, median is 1030.  So it's well above normal.  But you can see on the graph that it was hanging well above normal earlier in the week, and then if you look at the gauge height in feet graph, you'll see it rose about 0.4 foot in the last three days.  So you can tell the river has been a little high but fairly stable, and didn't get a big rise.  So my guess is it's high but probably still fishable below Greer, and would probably be a little high but still fishable upstream from Greer.  There's a gauge for Greer Spring, too, and it shows a median flow of 452 and a flow today of 659 cfs.  Subtract Greer Spring from the river gauge flow, and you get about 1100 cfs for the flow minus the spring, but there are also some tributaries and other springs that come in between Greer and Riverton.  My guess would be the median flow of the river just above Greer would be about 400-450 cfs this time of year (median flow of river at Riverton--1030, minus median flow of Greer Spring--452, equals 578 cfs, and then subtract about 25% of that to account for the tributaries below Greer.  So it's a little high above Greer but not too bad--I don't get too worried about it a stream being too high to fish until it's flowing about twice the median flow.

Thanks @Al Agnew   I’ve followed your advice from your blog and it’s saved me some fruitless drives.   One question.  Would you follow the twice normal flow rule in the summer when the rivers are typically lower?

[Mark]

Big Bass, refer to the second thread "Float Trip Planning Question" in this section - it was saved by the moderator and gives good brief descriptions on different sections of the Eleven Point.

IMO anything over 1,200-1,400 cfs is tough fishing for me, but Al is a better fisherman than me. I watch the Bardley gauge near RIverton and it has been dropping about 50 cfs daily. SO best case, it's at 1,700 cfs today, so it may drop to 1,450 cfs by Sat. And spotty showers tomorrow. It's up enough that you will cover some miles fast. Mileage will depend on how much you pull over and wade fish, tho wading will be tough with more current. 

It's been too high all spring for me to make the trip.A couple of buddies went a couple weeks ago and said it was tough fishing, but didn't say if they got skunked and I didn't ask. And you didn't say if you were targeting trout or smallmouth. The thread above describes that as well.

Don't let me discourage you> It will be easy floating by the weekend. Greer to Whitten is the prettiest section IMO - about 12 miles.

[Al Agnew]

11 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Thanks @Al Agnew   I’ve followed your advice from your blog and it’s saved me some fruitless drives.   One question.  Would you follow the twice normal flow rule in the summer when the rivers are typically lower?

More or less.  Once it gets to twice normal in the summer, it can be iffy.  I've gone by the 75th percentile flow a lot...if it's over that I figure there's a good chance it's too high.  But trying to decide what is still fishable when it gets significantly higher than normal is always a bit of a guessing game, unlike trying to figure out if a stream is too LOW to float.  I also go back to the height in feet graph, and try to figure out what the median flow in cfs is in feet.  I can usually find a period when it was around the median and translate that to feet.  Then, if it's much more than a foot above that median flow in the summer, it's going to be really iffy.

[snagged in outlet 3]

3 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

More or less.  Once it gets to twice normal in the summer, it can be iffy.  I've gone by the 75th percentile flow a lot...if it's over that I figure there's a good chance it's too high.  But trying to decide what is still fishable when it gets significantly higher than normal is always a bit of a guessing game, unlike trying to figure out if a stream is too LOW to float.  I also go back to the height in feet graph, and try to figure out what the median flow in cfs is in feet.  I can usually find a period when it was around the median and translate that to feet.  Then, if it's much more than a foot above that median flow in the summer, it's going to be really iffy.

Thanks.  Places I go all the time I keep track of flow and know what is ok.