The "new" Pit River

[Jeff Fisher]

Now that the grumbling has somewhat ceased about the new flow regime on the Pit, I myself have come to terms with the new situation on my favorite river. Actually, I'm kinda looking forward to seeing what effect the new flows have. Yes, some of my favorite spots will be "challenging" to fish, but spots we used to bypass now may become new favorites. Who knows.......

So....the reason I started this post is.........does anyone know if the "powers that be" will be providing us with some sort of release schedule? I think that would be the LEAST they could do since the Pit is a long-ish drive for most folks on this Board. Driving 4hrs only to find that PG&E decided to do a weekend-long "freshet flushing" at 1,500 cfs would be a major bummer!


~J

[joshfish]

i think you can get flow schedules from PG&E

[Fish Head]

Jeff,

The realtime flows in the Pit 4 and Pit 5 sections are available on the Department of Water Resources California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) web site. Here are the links FYI:

PH30: CDEC code is PR4 and the link is below
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=pr4


PH27: CDEC code is PRB and the direct link is below
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=prb

The flow information fo rthe Pit 3 section isn't available yet, but will also be provided on CDEC in the future.

As for a 'flow schedule', the Pit 3-4-5 Project license contains the minumim flow release schedule for each section of river. These flows are the 'new' flows that we've all been waiting for. The freshet flow you mention doesn't happen every year. If it does happen, it's during the month of March only. So, unless you plan to fish in March, you don't need to worry about it. Also, PG&E provides notifications of all scheduled 'high' flow/freshet flow releases to local fly shops, guides, and Redding Fish and Game/Forest Service. They also put notices in local Shasta County news papers.

I hope this helps with your trip planning on the Pit.

[Jeff Fisher]

That does help. Thanks Head.

Actually, our first trip is in March. So, we should be able to provide a pretty good description on this Board of the "differences" we noticed on the river with the new flows.