In this, the next of a now continual spate of email communications coming your way, with the advent of May, we now begin our annual watch of the water flows in Montana. To that end, here is a chart that will
For your rookies out there, what will now happen in Montana is, that as temperatures rise, the snow pack in the high mountains will begin to melt, sending turbidity (i.e., "dirt")-filled water downstream in thousands of tributaries that flow initially into our primary fishing rivers, the Bitterroot River and the Big ("A River Runs Through It") Blackfoot River, each of which then joins into the Clark Fork of the Columbia River at or near Missoula. As the turbidity rises, the clarity of the water decreases and, eventually, the fish stop feeding on the water's bug life (which, itself also goes dormant--thank you, Mother Nature!), until the water regains its clarity. The process is called "the runoff" and, at its height, not only will the volume of water that flows through each of the rivers dramatically increase (sometimes to 10x normal flowage levels) [making the rivers dangerous in their own right] but also the water will turn to the color of creamed mocha coffee reducing visibility for the fish to near "zero".
Over the last three years we have witnessed the extremes of the runoff:
(1) As you veterans will recall, 2007 was a "low snow, low water year"--that was the years that, by the time of our E-07 July last group, water and air temperatures had soared to such a high rate that the MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department (as they always will when river water temperatures reach into the low sixty degrees) restricted fishing statewide to "Hoot Owl Hours", where fishing was banned from 2:00 p.m. through midnight every day and we were arising at 5:00 a.m. to get on the water by 7:00 a.m to get our fishing in before the 2:00 p.m. shutdown [the reason for the shutdown being that, with high temperatures, the oxygen level in the water reduces and the fish cannot re-oxygenate après being caught, making them enfeebled and easy prey for their daily true fishing nemeses, the eagle and osprey].
(2) And, by marked contrast, those of you that Extravagantly fished two years ago in 2008 remember the continued high water runoff (that ran all the way through July!), where and when local Missoula water levels were so high that our first two groups found themselves trekking over the Continental Divide to fish the Missouri River (with phenomenal results, btw).
As your look to the chart (now your very best E-10 fishing barometer), using our home Rock Creek as a measuring stick, note what I regard to be the "perfect curve" that we had last year for E-09: (a) We had a "normal" snow pack to begin the runoff; (b) we had a great spike in snowmelt (due to high May temperatures) such that water levels literally spiked upwards (flushing/cleansing the rivers with great efficiency and relocating fish from their familiar winter haunts to unfamiliar haunts when we came on the scene); and (c) the water levels dropped perfectly for the 6/21 commencement of E-09 (unlike in 2008 when water flows continued to be too high, and unlike 2007 when, due to the paucity of beginning snow levels, they continued to plummet to unusually low levels).
To check you out on the chart, water flowage is measured in "cubic feet per second", or "cfs". Using Rock Creek as our barometer, what we want to have happen is just what happened last year (the black line)--a high spike into 3,000+ cfs and then, upon our arrivals, having that flowage drop to around 1800 cfs--the perfect scenario for our fishing experience. Our goal is to be on the scene just after the waters have re-cleared and just after the peak flowage has occurred.
As we begin the process for E-10, blessedly, with recent MT precipitation during the months of March and April, opening snow pack levels in the Bitterroot Mountain Range are currently at 63% (up from the low 50%) of average, so we have a better than even chance of having a "good runoff" this year...we will see, however, as we monitor Mother Nature's progress on a now weekly basis. Follow the red line as it progresses on our chart--my hope is that, with lower-than-last-year beginning snow pack levels, the line will climb to around 3,000 cfs around the end of May and then gradually decline to the 1500 cfs level come June 21st--that would be just about perfect for us. We shall see however!!
Welcome to our discharge watch, gang; this is like watching the end of a baseball season to see just who will be in the playoffs!!
Best to all in observation of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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