Canyon Ferry Water Levels

Daily Reservoir Data as of 04/21/2014

Pool Elevation is 3779.2 Feet
Pool Elevation to Fill 17.8 Feet
Reservoir Storage is 1335235. Acre-Feet
Reservoir Storage to Fill 556653.0 Acre-Feet
Reservoir Inflow is 6996.1 CFS
Reservoir Outflow is 8271.1 CFS
Reservoir is 70.6 % Full*
Reservoir Flood Control Pool is filled 0.0 %
Missouri River Flow is 8144.6 CFS

Ok, just for shits and giggles, I looked at the water level for Canyon Ferry again after looking at the stream flows for the Missouri. (BTW, you can get stream flows for all of Montana by clicking the link to the right.) The reservoir is only about 70% full, which is a couple percentage points lower than a couple weeks ago. The inflow is 1150 cfs less than the outflow. Not totally understanding why the bureau is still draining the reservoirs, I also went to the SNOTEL website: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/mt_swepctnormal_update.pdf

I recently heard that the plan was to eventually release about 14,000 cfs out of the Holter Dam. Snowpack, according to the SNOTEL site for the Madison, Gallatin and Jefferson basins is between 119 and 136 percent of normal snowpack for this time of year. That's high but it's not crazy high so I guess what they're counting on is a very wet spring. My feeling is if we get the same amount of precipitation we got last year, we won't have enough water in the reservoirs to maintain the flows throughout the summer.

A couple years ago, the bureau wasn't very proactive with releasing water early and we got up to 22,000 cfs with about 18,000 sustained for a couple weeks. The fishing was still good but the dry fly action was non-existent. Last year they were too aggressive with getting out in front of the runoff and we were at about 3,000 cfs for most of the year. I actually thought the fishing was outstanding with the low water but a lot of folks were pretty bummed about it. I guess having some balance would be cool--not sure if we'll see that yet.

One thing that needs to be taken into account is what's happening down-stream as what the bureau decides to do with the upper water definitely affects more than just us fishing dudes. What feeds the Lower Missouri has about 150% of normal snowpack for this time of year. The Yellowstone snowpack is way up there as well.

The reality is, is it is what it is. I like high water. I like the fact that it opens up a lot of channels and it makes certain stretches of the Missouri much more fishable for longer. It does tend to retard the bug hatches at some point when the water is too high but we haven't hit that yet. I'll be fishing/guiding the next few days with about as good of conditions weather-wise that we could have so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure we'll catch plenty of fish on nymphs and I'm hoping the bugs will still show themselves.

Keep 'em where they live...