East Fork Carson River Report
What the river is doing right now.
Two federal gauges, read afresh every thirty minutes, and a plain sentence about what each reading means against the median for today’s date. Nobody here types this page. If the gauges stop answering it says so, and if a number looks strange it is because the river is doing something strange.
Right now.
50.3cfs
as of 4:00 PM, September 26
The East Fork is running 50.3 cfs — about the median for September 26, which is 58 cfs across 66 years of record at this gauge.
About what this date usually brings: the ordinary river, which is the one most people picture when they imagine the place.
It has held steady across the week.
14.1cfs
as of 4:00 PM, September 26
The West Fork is running 14.1 cfs — below the median for September 26, which is 24 cfs across 94 years of record at this gauge.
On the low side of usual — clear water, and trout that have had a while to grow careful about it.
It has held steady across the week.
Gauge readings are USGS provisional data and may be revised. The median each reading is compared against is that gauge’s own record for this calendar date, and those records have gaps — the years-of-record figure counts only years the gauge actually reported.
We do not publish a judgment on whether the river is safe to wade, and we are not going to. Look at the water when you get here, and if you are not sure about it, stay out of it.
Were fish planted recently?
East Fork
34 days ago
Last plant: week of August 23, 2026
The water out front — CDFW rainbows and Heenan-strain cutthroat, May–Oct, topped up by the county.
West Fork
34 days ago
Last plant: week of August 23, 2026
Hope Valley and Woodfords water — the state plants rainbows here.
Markleeville Creek
34 days ago
Last plant: week of August 23, 2026
In-town water, two miles up the road — catchable rainbows through the summer.
The state posts the WEEK a plant begins and the water — never the day, never the spot, by design. So “days ago” counts from the first day of that week. Heenan Lake is missing from this list on purpose: it is California’s Lahontan cutthroat broodstock lake and is never planted for anglers. Its own page explains the season.
What this page can’t tell you.
The gauges report one thing: how much water is going past. They do not report water temperature, and they cannot see clarity — a river at the same flow can be green glass one week and chocolate the next, and only your own eyes settle it.
There is no fly of the month here and no “what’s working”. Every report that carries those is written by somebody, and a report written by somebody is a report that goes stale the week they get busy. This one is built from the federal gauges and the state’s own stocking feed, so it is either current or it admits it isn’t.
Ask at the General Store when you arrive — open 8am to 6pm, every day. That is where the answer to “what are they taking?” actually lives, and it is a conversation, not a page.
The water in depth.
- Fishing the East Fork — the stocked water out front, the wild canyon below Hangman’s Bridge, the regulations and the fish-plant alerts.
- The river, stretch by stretch — where the rules change, on one topographic map.
- The planting record — the ledger’s pages back to 1864, and the comeback from extinction.
- Heenan Lake — the broodstock lake six miles up the Monitor road, September 1 to November 30.
- Cabins and riverside sites — the beds and the campsites closest to this water.
