The past week…..

[Red Childress]

I was down in VA visiting my dad after not seeing him for exactly 2 years (Covid). I dropped my boat off at Wiegel’s on the way down so they could service it. Unlike most service appointments, I always end up replacing parts and fixing rattles due to the crazy amount of hourly use each year. The Wiegel guys call my boat the ‘test dummy’ because they have never dealt with a boat that gets used as much as mine. She is 13 years old with 1340 hours on it and I will likely be putting engine number 3 in it within the next couple of years.

Anyway, I plan to get on the river 3 or 4 times next week as the summer break is winding down. River conditions will likely dictate what species we chase as it looks like the river is bumping way up today from the storms this past week.


Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

Here is a daily graph showing what happens to the Kinzua outflow temperature when the discharge rises above the approx. 5000 CFS level. During summer, the 2 top gates are seeing most of the action until more water needs to be released. Then, the 2 lower gates are added which brings the much cooler water from the bottom of the reservoir into the equation. The temperature change happens almost immediately. Yesterday, the river temp dropped 7 degrees (73 to 66). This drop usually has an instant impact on fish activity…………especially the muskies and bass. After the acclimation period is over, (which can take several days) the fishing usually picks up if your presentation matches the conditions.

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[Red Childress]

We have had a crazy change in river levels since yesterday. The river was running high at almost 10,000 CFS and was reduced to 763! I haven’t seen a sudden fluctuation like this in several years. My 2 guesses as to why this happened are: 1) The Corps is very worried about flooding on the lower Allegheny and Ohio rivers (tropical storms pushing North) or 2) there is a gate inspection/repair happening over the next few days.

Regardless of the reason, anything under 1200 CFS or so will make travel very treacherous/almost impossible (if driving an OUTBOARD jet) in the section between the Dam down to Warren. At 763, even the INBOARD jets will will make bottom contact around every island in that same 8.6 mile stretch. Be on the lookout for shore/wade fishermen when river levels are this low. Canoe and Kayakers with heavier loads will be doing lots of portaging over the next few days. The top graph shows the crazy reduction in outflow since yesterday. The bottom graph shows the river temp immediately increasing 4-5 degrees during this reduction of outflow.


The discharge forecast for the upcoming week says the outflow will bump back up to around 10,000 on Monday afternoon (approx). Crazy stuff!


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[ppalko]

That would be fun the watch in real time! I’ve seen crazy drops and fish and the like get stranded everywhere. No rain on the lower river. Must be a gate issue. That would be pretty rough to run in any boat. That’s near the absolute minimum flow. Are they just running water through the power plant? They did that for an extended period one summer and caused a massive fish kill.

[Red Childress]

I received several texts since my morning post telling me the reason. Apparently, there is a missing 2-year old girl near the town of Tidioute……which explains the sudden closing of the gates. Very sad news. Every time the discharge is high, especially during summertime weekends, I get worried about these types of things.


I’ve never seen or heard about any big fish kills so it must have been pre-1993. The minimum discharge is at least down to 550-600 because I have seen it there before. Anything under 1000 is very tight for an outboard jet (especially North of Warren). I was told by a good source, most of the turbine water is released in the evenings to meet demand. The average cfs for power generation is like 150-300 cfs. You can see the overnite changes in temp and outflow with the right graphs.

I just checked the outflow and it is headed back to 10,000 (at 7000 now) and temps have dropped 6 degrees so far.

[Red Childress]

The body was found. Someone texted me around 4:30.