You asked what the best levels for French Creek would be.  I use the Utica gauge http://water.weather.gov/...wfo=pbz&gage=utcp1   The water as it is right now at this writing at Utica, 2.33 ft is perfect.  The water today was just slightly clouded, flowing nicely and just the right depth to still cruise through the riffles.  
 
If it gets much under 2 ft you'll be walking a lot of riffles, if it gets up close to 4 ft chances are it's muddy and fast flowing.   

Kayak 99,
thanks a ton. This is the specific info I was searching for. Watching the USGS gages from home has saved many an awful trip and many gallons of gas.

Well, did you make the float?  When, where and how was it?

Kayak99,
We put in on fri 6-22 at the Saegertown launch. Time was about 0630 and the Utica gage read 1.87'.  We took out at the Boro launch in Meadville at about 1530. It was a nice section of stream. I was rather surprised by some of the shallow sections.
I only had to get out and pull my yak a short distance twice.When we traversed the pools we found cover and fish. We only boated 6 fish each, sub par by our home water standards. My buddy did boat a nice walleye of 21" in one pool. The rest were smallmouth of average size 8"-13".
We contemplated our day two over a few cold ones in Conneaut Lake. It was decided to head back south and forego the section from Meadville to Cochranton.
Overall I would flaot it again as well as the lower portion that we skipped, just not high on the priority list.
 Our trip back south didnt disappoint... its gonna be hard to make the drive up north again when we know what we have in the backyard!

I like floating from Carlton down to Sugarcreek

Glad you had a good trip.  Smallies don't seem to be biting as in past years and I've caught fewer larger ones.  Might be the warmer water.   Still a great creek to float though!
 
Updating this post.  Caught the largest smaillie of the year yesterday on the hottest day of the year.  That's French Creek! Unpredictable!