Stream Flow Resource

[EdB]

I wanted to share the USGS stream flow links. This is a great resource to determine if a river is fishable or if it is blown out due to heavy rain or snowmelt. I have a decent drive to the rivers I fish and nothing worse than getting there and finding it is chocolate milk or at flood stage and unfishable.

You have to use these gauges in conjunction with live river observations and once you've done that, you can rely on the gauges only once you know what they mean for the river you fish. Some but not all rivers have a turbidity chart, this is a real good one to determine how clear or murky the river is.

Here is the US chart, click on the state you want and then click on the dot for the river you want. Not all rivers have streamflow gauges and some big rivers have multiple gauges on various stretches of the river.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

Here is the state of Michigan chart:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mi/nwis/rt

Here is the discharge graph for the St Joe at Niles. The yellow diamonds represent the long term average.

Here is the turbidity at the same station at Niles. Not all stations have a turbidity graph.

Hope these tools can help your river fishing.

Edited March 17, 2014 by EdB

[fisf crazy]

yhanks theybare very useful