blown out

If you've been following the national news, the Red River in Fargo is at a record high right now, with massive flooding going on throughout the region. One of the Red's main tributaries, and my home water, is the Otter Tail River. Flows on the Otter Tail downstream of Orwell are sky high, a record four times the average flow for this time of year. In fact flows have been high throughout most of 2008 and much of 2009, well above the 80th percentile. It will be interesting to see how long of a duration the river will stay above average this spring, and any effect it may have on fish migration and spawning. Either way, flows above 1200 cfs are going to make fishing difficult, if not impossible, for bottom dwelling fish. Anything short of a cannonball is going to have trouble getting down and staying down. With new snow on the ground from this week, and a large spring snowstorm forecasted to hit the area early next week, area rivers will be flowing at swollen capacity for quite some time.

Looks like I'll be out of commission for awhile.