Upper Current Report

[ColdWaterFshr]

Spent this past Friday thru Sunday on upper Current, Baptist to Cedar Grove.  River was still somewhat milky, but visibility to bottom was about 5 feet.  

Destruction was evident upon arrival at Baptist.  Though it had been cleaned up,  huge piles of gravel and sand were everywhere.  Sand covers the whole river valley.  15 to 20 foot trees and larger, ….

(6 ft me holding 9ft fly rod, 4 feet short of debris overhead, standing 5 feet above waterline)

….swept down at 45° angles through both sides of the river corridor up to 20 feet vertical from the rivers edge.  Large trees down everywhere.

Parker Hollow was unrecognizable.  Needs bulldozing and lots of chainsaw work, though it is accessible in high clearance vehicle.

Fishing was good for 10-12 incher hatchery slicks, if that is your thing.  I fear the sand deposits and major gravel shifts will take years for the riverbed insect population to recover.

parking lot at Baptist was jam packed on Sunday at noon, fisherman looking for easy targets. 

 

[ColdWaterFshr]

Parker

[jdmidwest]

Scoured pretty bad.  Guards still posted at park?

[ColdWaterFshr]

We didn’t go in the park at all.

[mikeak]

Thanks for the report, been wondering how much damage was done.Hurts to see this.

Mike

[Quillback]

At first I thought that was an eagles nest you were pointing at.  Man, a lot of water came through there.

[snagged in outlet 3]

21 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Sand covers the whole river valley.  15 to 20 foot trees and larger, ….

After The big flood a few years ago on the Meramec I found a picnic table 20’ up in a tree.  Crazy.  Thx for the report.  

[Gavin]

Wow, I hope we will all be surprised  by how quickly it recovers. 

[ElkHairCaddis]

Man, that's brutal. I love fishing that river. @ColdWaterFshr, is Baptist fishable?

[ColdWaterFshr]

18 hours ago, ElkHairCaddis said:

Man, that's brutal. I love fishing that river. @ColdWaterFshr, is Baptist fishable?

Yes