Snow Runnoff

[Squaretail]

All this snow should help keep the water levels up through the summer. That's the good news. But I was wondering how the flows coming out of 1st Lake and Lake Frances in Pittsburg will be in May. Last trip up there was the 2nd week in Sept. and they were dumping so much water that it was tough even getting in the water most spots. Junction pool were Perry Str comes in was up to my armpits. The fishing was terrible and we had no canoe and left the float tubes home as we had only planned to fish the River. We stayed at Lake Frances Campground and the Trophy Stretch sounded like a freight train coming out of the woods. Any guesses as to when good, fishable flows could be found this spring up there??

[fessiewig]

Check out Waterline. We'll soon have a link to it on this site. Once you've got it book marked you can monitor the flows. A flow out of Murphy Dam below 300 is good. 1st and 2nd Connecticut dams I'm not sure of the flow, but by the end of this summer I'll know. I bet if we asked, someone could probably tell us what the good flows out of those dams would be.

[bmik]

Releases below 1st Lake are what I consider ideal at 150 -200CFS. Much above 200 and it gets tough to cross. If you can catch it within a couple of days of the flows coming down from over 250CFS it can be great. The fish come up out of Lake Francis when he water is high. They tend to stay in the river when it drops. Last May was fantastic.
Summer flows are usually around 90 cfs.
But, I have also seen it on Memorial Day with flows above 500CFS. With this year's snow that may be the case again. We'll all have to watch and see what happens.

[Flyfish99]

Ditto what bmik said. I've had good fishing at 300 cfs, but it is much easier at 100 - 200. Best fishing I ever had there was two days in June 2001. The water had been running at 565 cfs for several days, and dropped all the way back to 100. Big salmon and lakers were in the river in good numbers...caught a 22" landlock on a size 18 Sulphur spinner the first evening. A guy I knew caught a 28" laker as the water was dropping.

The fish kept dropping downstream, but were still up as far as Doc's Pool at the end of the second day. Incidentally, it was possible to catch a few fish with the water at 565, bat it were'nt pretty.

As far as the September flows are concerned, they were likely dumping water to lower the lavel to allow for spring runoff. This is common practice in reservoirs in the northeast. According what I've picked up on the internet, the snowpack in the Pittsburg area varies from 20" to 35" depending on elevation. Not at all excessive for that area. Barring any major nor'easters or heavy spring rains, I thing the spring runoff should be OK. They have been running the river out of First Lake at 275, for a while now, which is higher than normal.

[fessiewig]

Great information guys. Thanks. Let me see if I have this straight . . . you're talking about the dam on 1st lake. What about the dam on 2nd lake? What numbers should we be looking for there?

[fessiewig]

Bmik & Flyfish99,

Do you agree with my number on the Murphy Dam?

[bmik]

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/rt
http://www.h2oline.com/USG.asp
The two links above are very helpful. Yes I agree with the Murphy Dam number. Flow conditions right now seem near perfect...but too cold, and too much snow! I haven't fished below 2nd lake too much, but I think that once it starts approaching 175-200cfs access is really tough.
I always check the guage heights as well where they are available.
God, all this talking about Pittsburg is making me homesick to get up there. Soon,,,very soon.

[Flyfish99]

Yes, 300 cfs is a good flow below Murphy. It is fishable at higher levels, but access becomes more difficult.

75 to 100 CFS is a good flow from Second Lake. Access is limited here, so it is a matter of brush busting or wading to get to much of the stream. My age is catching up to me, so on the rare occasions when I fish upstream of the First Lake inlet, I like a low flow for wading puposes. If you are looking to fish the inlet for salmon, then you would want to see more water.