Bob Marshall Snowpack/Melt

The Hungry Horse gauge is right below the dam, and tells you nothing useful. Look at the Twin Creeks gauge instead.

Last year we had a lot more snow and it melted in a very moderated fashion. The South Fork was unusually high all the way through September. This year is very different. There is almost no snow below 6500' now. Even if June is very cool and rainy, I expect the South Fork to come down sharply staring in mid-July. By the last week of August I'd expect the South Fork at Twin Creeks to be in the 500-700 cfs range. Floating above Salmon Forks at this level is extremely slow and involves much dragging.

I'd recommend moving your trip up 3-4 weeks if possible.

Sorry I misread the gauge I was looking at, it says Twin C near Hungry Horse so I was looking at the right one all along. Thanks for the information Dave.

Our trip is all feet, no floating and planning on making camp for several days about 5 miles upstream from Salmon Forks. It looks like when we went last year the gauge was around 1200cfs. Will the low flows affect fishing other than concentrating the fish to certain holes, or is there such a thing as too low there?

Due to other group member logistics it has to be the last week of August unfortunately.

Thanks.

For just fishing you folks should be good to go. Even if the river is low the water still stays pretty cool, which keeps the fish happy and healthy. The wading should be about as easy as it ever gets.

Thanks for all your insight David. Looks like flows are already below 500, still 3 weeks out from our trip so a bit nervous.

As far as hydration points, we are hiking in from meadow creek TH. Mid Creek and Black Bear Creek were flowing fine last year with the late melt you mentioned, do you think these water sources will still be available as hydration points?

What about further down the trail such as Snow and Little Salmon creeks?

Thanks for your help!

Larger creeks like Mid, Black Bear, and Little Salmon should still have a decent amount of water. Smaller stuff is dry or drying up fast.