Middle Fork American?

[Packrat]

Anyone have any info on flow/water conditions on the MFA near Oxbow, either above the Ralston picnic area or below the res? Might make a day trip up there next weekend.

Thanks in advance.

[BenFishin]

here you go

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/jspplot/jspPlotServlet.jsp?sensor_no=7710&end=&geom=&interval=&cookies

use extreme caution when wading. as you can see by the chart, the flows increase by over 600 cfs in a short period of time so crossing is not an option unless you want to camp out over night. We learned this lesson many many years ago when we almost lost my buddies son trying to cross back over in the afternoon and didn't have a clue about the flow conditions

[JasonB]

So I was at the Middle fork for my birthday last week, and got skunked :mad: . Just a few pointers, not that I really know that river real well or anything:

I would agree about being cautious wading, this time of year below Oxbow I would NOT plan on being able to cross the river back and forth. The flows are coming up pretty much daily, so you may have low flows for a bit but plan on them being too high to wade much once the dam release catches up to you. Fishing in Oxbow where the MFA came in looked like a reasonable choice as the water there is much warmer, the Rubicon inlet looked pretty swift and deep, not so good wading.

The biggest problem with fishing on the Middle fork drainage is the access is so marginal and limited. One of the big annoyances for me in the summer is that several access points have limited hours that are NOT conducive to prime fishing time. Anyways, I'd say it could be worth a trip but don't count on stellar conditions or easy access/wading... but there are fish to be had...
JB