We Need a Cool-Down!

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No, I'm not cabin-fevered out, nor a stark-raving mental lunatic. If you haven't caught it, the Knife gauge went live here finally. And while that is great news since it means the ice is finally going out of North Shore tribs, take a look at the latest flow - OY!

4000cfs is about 9X higher than the fishable flow range. What we need is a bit of a cool down to slow runoff from snowmelt. There's still a fair amount of snow up in the highlands yet, so if we get some moderated temps, it would reduce the mad runoff dash to the lake, and bring flow rates back down towards fishable ranges as opposed to the Class V whitewater we have now.

The other thing it will do is to help raise water temps. This might seem counter-intuitive, but even when stream temps are approaching that magic 40F mark, a big dump of snowmelt runoff tanks temps since it's dumping cold water into the streams. This in turn slows down fishing even though the fish are there. Steelhead are creatures of metabolism after all.

Fortunately it looks like we might get just that: Daytime temps in the mid-forties with overnight temps below freezing for a few days. Look for flows to begin to drop and hold on!
Regards-
NMF

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