Runoff Sunday Update

Greetings all from the stunning magnitude of it all:

 

The Runoff here in Western Montana continues to run at a record-setting pace—so much so that the flow on Rock Creek approached what the Rock Creek Mercantile’s Carolyn Persico thinks is  6,000 cfs three days ago on Thursday—this is just an estimate because the flow has been so steadily high for so long that it literally has taken down the electronic flow measuring device in Rock Creek just behind The Merc and is now somewhere below 5,000 cfs as shown in the attached pictures and is dropping rapidly.  By way of example, I took the first of the above pictures about noon this Sunday morning and, while returning from a Montana Wildlife Federation board meeting, took the second around 6:00 p.m. last evening—you can visually see the dropage.  As an aside, while coming back from Helena yesterday and paralleling the upper reaches of the Clark Fork of the Columbia (one of our targeted rivers), the flow is so high and strong that, where the river is normally 200 feet wide and flowing in an orderly manner, this year the river is up to one half mile it width and its main channel is no where to be observed!

 

What lies ahead for us runoff wise is much more water—so much so that those of you watching the NBC national news last Thursday saw the report that there is still enough water in the Western slopes as far south as Salt Lake City where, there, it was reported that there is yet enough snow water content in the high climes to fill all of the Wasatch Mountains’ reservoirs three times over!  The repot concluded with the hydrologist saying of the ongoing runoff, “We are in for a four week rodeo.”

 

That being the case, I write to reconfirm that the fishing plan for Group One is to cross the Continental Divide and fish the Missouri River just below the Holter Dam (in very controlled, placid waters) for both of its fishing days one and two.  To that end, our Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould reports in that “the Mo is still fishing great, and the [Bitter]Root continues to drop!!!  Ready for E11,110%!!!”

 

GROUP ONERS:  YOUR NEXT EMAIL FROM ME WILL BE A SPECIAL NOTE OF INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING OUR WONDERFUL E-11 FISHING PLAN FOR YOU!!

 

More to follow to all, gang!

 

Best to all from the flowing scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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p.s. To give you an idea of the power and force of each year’s runoff, the tree shown down in the last picture above was standing upright on the bank of Rock Creek last evening!  Safety first, all; safety first!!