If you're looking to fish anywhere in Southwestern Montana anytime soon, you might see this at the Fishing Access Sites. I went golfing today at Cottonwood Hills near Three Corners outside of Bozeman and this is what the Gallatin looks like. At 5,920cfs at Gateway, the Gallatin is about double its normal size for this time of year. The Missouri at Toston, which the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison feed, is at 20,500cfs. With Canyon Ferry a little less than 80% full, it shouldn't be long before we see a significant push below Holter. It's 10,400cfs right now.
Runoff is now full-on with all the warm weather in the last week. I kind of questioned the bureau for keeping the reservoirs so low while releasing so much water but now they look pretty smart. Like I said though, I'm glad I'm not the one making the call. I heard a few months ago they were predicting the Mo below Holter to get up to 14,000cfs this year. I've been looking at the Snotel website and it looks like the Missouri Basis is about as wet as normal for this time of year taking into account precipitation, reservoir levels, ground moisture and snowpack so I don't think we'll get to 14,000 but we could. In fact, there are parts of Montana that feed the Jefferson that are a little low on the Surface Water Supply Index. The state in general is way high, however.
You can look at the link to the right for current stream flows for the state but just to give you an idea, the Yellowstone at Livingston is 32,000cfs; three times it's normal flow. The Big Horn by Hardin is 8,370cfs; five times it's normal size. The Blackfoot near Bonner is almost double at 9,600 and the Bitterroot is double near Missoula ta 16,400. That's big water folks but be thankful the Mo is still fishing but remember, it fishes better with a local guide.
Keep 'em where they live...
No comments:
Post a Comment