Looking for Help

This will be a good one.....

Guess I'll go first -

Splash/BigSplash - there's lots of resources other than the ones you list that will give you the info you need.
People are busy with their lives and most likely don't have the time to spend on here giving daily weather/stream reports.

I live 6 - 7 hours away and I don't care what the conditions are like when I go. I've learned that there's more to fishin than the catchin.

Splash , steely34 has it right. If your looking for "perfect conditions" you will more than likely be disappointed every trip up. With that being said make the most of your trip. A good rule of thumb to follow is 1-2 days after a lot of rain it will be good and getting better. If its been cold , in the 20's, for 3-4 or more days its gonna be locked up pretty tight. If we havent had rain for more than a week its going to be low and clear. That should get you started on what to expect on your trips. Keep these things in mind and plan accordingly.

Report as of today , and I havent even been to look at conditions, I just know from experience with the weather pattern---low and clear with no snow and ice.

It's all in what you prefer, but usually the first few days after a high water episode tend to be the best, especially in Autumn.

During the winter, it's anyone's guess, however the most norm of the conditions to be expected are low to mid clear to green. Try not to plan a trip around when a bunch of snow melt runoff is occurring, has the potential to make the fishing very lame. When the winter temps steady out usually during the mid course of the day, that is when I have found the best fishing to be. I personally prefer fishing in low-clear water early season, September to October being the best (in my opinion) months to fish, along with March.

One thing that's really helped my success in determining conditions is to learn to read the Walnut Gauge. I personally think it's more helpful than the Brandy Run gauge, since Brandy is so small and rises and falls quickly. If you do a search on here, cbeagler put up a thread a year or two ago with pictures of Walnut corresponding to gauge height and discharge.

Generally speaking if Walnut is around 100 CFS and DROPPING, it will be about prime. At this reading, you'll generally be able to sight fish on smaller tribs, but with still good flow. Elk will be a little higher and a little more stained. I really like to fish Elk when Walnut's at about 75 and dropping because you can see some fish, but the flow is still pretty good. Again, these are generalizations and not every day will be the same and based on the conditions I prefer to fish in.

In the winter, even at the same readings, conditions tend to be different than the fall because of ground saturation and such. When there's snowcover and it's melting on tribs of the larger tribs, levels can come up and get murky pretty quick. This happened to me a few weeks ago on upper Elk. The morning was prime, and there was not much snowcover, but still a little, especially in valleys and shaded areas. But with really high temps, by mid-afternoon the snow melt was significant enough that Elk was murky and getting high. Still fishable, but not conditions I prefer.

Even when Elk and Walnut are blown, some of the smaller tribs will fish well as their drainages are much smaller. You'd do well to explore a smaller trib or two each trip up, as becoming familiar with one or more can save the day for you, as it has for me. I know it's not always fun or cheap to put time in learning new areas, but I live near the Burgh too. Believe me, it's worth it to familiarize yourself with as many different areas as you can. Don't forget creek mouths in the fall, especially when tribs are blown and staging fish are ready to run. I don't know anything about it, but I do read many reports of good steelhead catches in the Bay, especially in the winter and spring.