Gauge Description:

The gauge for this section is a staff gauge located on an old bridge abutement approximately 30 feet upstream on river left of the Clifty Bridge. In the fall of 2005, the staff gauge had been either washed away or vandalized. I have recently installed a new staff gauge in the same location. The current gauge should be equivalent to the old gauge level. A level of 1.2' is considered minimum and the holes at the bottom of the ledge drops will not be sticky. The optimum level is 1.6' to 1.8'. At this level it is not too scrapey and the drops are not sticky. At 2.1'+ the river gets pushy and the ledges sticky. At the very high levels, big holes and encounters with trees are significant hazards. Check out descriptions of high runs by Clay Wright below.
The Virtual Gauge is based on the two closest electronic river gauges (Daddys Creek and the Obed) in close proximity to the Caney Fork watershed. The virtual gauge works best after a consistent blanket rainfall. The virtual gauge is only a tool to assist in making a judgement on the Caney Fork flow. Please submit the time, date, and staff gauge reading on your runs. This will allow the correlation between the staff gauge and virtual gauge to be improved.
Virtual Minimum: 510 cfs
Virtual Maximum: 2500cfs
Correlation between the staff gauge and virtual flow:
1.2' = 510 cfs
1.4' = 610 cfs
1.6' = 730 cfs
1.7' = 810 cfs
1.9' = 1000 cfs
2.1' = 1300 cfs
2.5' = 1650 cfs
2.8' = 2100 cfs
3.3' = 2700 cfs
Without the gauge, if water laps over the back of the large rock directly below the first ledge drop - it's a minimum level. If you can paddle right over the rock and boof the hole on the back - it's a medium level. If you wouldn't want to punch the hole it forms and the left sneak doesn't look scrapey - it's getting high.