E-12: May the Flow Be With You!!

 

Fellow Extravaganzers:

 

As we enter the month of May, all fishing eyes are now properly focused on “the runoff”:  the process by which snow that, over the winter months, which has accumulated in the upper climes begins to melt resulting in the flow of its contained water downhill(s), first into rivulets, then into streams and then into our target rivers—the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, the Bitterroot River and the Big (“A River Runs Through It”) Blackfoot River.

 

Each year for the past several we have charted this runoff and, just as with individual fingerprints, the “fingerprint” of one year’s runoff is totally unique from any other.  Attached is our accumulated flow chart that uses as a baseline the runoff of Rock Creek which flows in our Headquarters’ backyard.  Its flows are indicative of the flows of our companion rivers in the same geographical area and tell the tale of each year’s runoff and, resultantly, the quality and volume of the fishing waters that we fish during each Extravaganza (we intentionally schedule this event to be right after the runoff, when the rivers have been flushed out, fish have been relocated and, with the dissipating colder snowmelt, water temperatures rise with a resulting bounty of “hatches” (see “E” is for Entomology!).

 

To begin with, our seasonal snow pack and snow water equivalent started with “A” is for Average for the last 20 year’s calculations.  That is good news.

 

What the chart above reflects is that, during The Runoff of 2012, the runoff, due to recent high temperatures, is (a) starting earlier than normal and (b) the flow is higher than normal for this time of year.  Check the chart out:  in each of the four previous included years the runoff started between 500 and 1,000 cubic feet per second (“cfs”) and this year, already, as marked in red, the flow is beginning for us at 2,500 cfs. 

 

That is just the beginning of the tale, however, as it was snowing in Missoula much of this week and, as we watch this year’s runoff flow develop, what we are looking for is a traditional bell curve with the runoff peaking in late May and receding just about the time of Group One’s June 16^th arrival.

 

This chart is now posted to Der Blog and, as we get closer and closer to E-12, you should begin checking out that site for information that will (blessedly) begin superceding this constant stream of email that comes you way from yours truly,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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