How much is too much water on South Branch of Raritan or Musconectcong?

[kdecker]

Hi everyone!

Hoping to get on the water tomorrow. With all the rain recently, I am concerned water levels may be too high for wading. Can anyone help me understand normal flow vs 'too much water' for these rivers? ie, what is the measurement (flow vs depth) and where to look for current flow?

Thanks so much for taking the time! Its so hard to get out these days, it would be a bummer to pick the wrong spot to head toward because water is raging, lol.

BTW-- I did check South Branch Outfitters (formerly Shannon's) and they showed USGS water level of 4' fr Muconectong and 7.4' for south Branch of Raritan-- which would be overhead depth for me, lol.

 

[greg s]

I like to use the stream flow CFS instead of the gauge height. For me, 200 CFS is the uppermost, under 100-150 is good. But that's just me.

 

[dcabarle]

I'm with you on this, Greg.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

For the South Branch, anything under 350 is fishable, but safe wading is 200 cfs and under. For the Musky, anything under 450 is fishable, but anything under 250 cfs is safe wading.

 

[greg s]

Here is a site that shows water monitoring data for the S Branch and from which you can get the water temperature again. The array is at the same place the USGS monitoring equipment is. There are others river sites that give the temp where the USGS doesn't on here also.

Browse Sites

Web Streaming Data Loader

monitormywatershed.org

 

[kdecker]

thank you all for the intel! Appreciate it!