by Joe, I think I've got it! To avoid an "argument" lets change troutslammers verb from "wading" to "crossing". To me the term wading means standing in the water. Troutslammer says its not safely wadeable for him to go from 59 to the island. That's crossing. He can still wade, but isn't comfortable wading the whole way across.. So what he is trying to say is its not crossable for him.
Like Troutslammer said, its not comfortable for him.. I would never bust someones balls for not feeling comfortable in any level of water, but wading is a term used to describe being in the water so you can reach parts of the river that you cant from shore, so whether you are ten feet from shore or or 30 yards, you are still wading. Sometimes the current is just as swift or swifter 10 feet from shore then it is in the middle.
If you never fished this area before, I would definitely do your exploring during the day so you can see your footing and those rocks that like to trip ya. Be careful.

and thats one cool reason to, during higher levels to "wade" from hemlock.  that way you only have to "cross" the small backwater that forms the north side of dixon island.

it works uber. I like it.

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another person posted about sudden water changes.  The water flow does indeed change hour by hour, even during stable water outflow.  The oscilation has been pretty prominent recently.  Other times we've seen either almost no change and sometimes a 1 or 2 a day burst of water.

I don't really notice any difference in "wading"  as the water flow goes up and down. 
the thing to really watch out for is when they go from say 2,000 to 6,000 -10,000.  they can go up several thousands of cfs in an hour. 

A good resource for trying to stay informed about that is
http://wmw.lrp.usace.army.mil/current/forecast.html

it both states the reservoir water level and the forecast outflow for the next three days.   It is particularly useful in the winter and summer when they will generally keep waters levels at the winter(summer) pool.  Keep in mind that big rain events are not anticipated in the forecast...

so as an example
if this were summer and we were near the summer pool; yesterdays tropical rain event (2-3" throughout most of the watershed) could dramatically alter the planned outfall, even though they didn't give us three days notice.

I've been the to ANF, but I've never fished in there. This and a few other threads make it seem like there are fish there, but it's a challenging environment to fish. Is my impression correct?

ORIGINAL: Accountant

I've been the to ANF, but I've never fished in there. This and a few other threads make it seem like there are fish there, but it's a challenging environment to fish. Is my impression correct?

You are correct. The river is very humbling, but once you figure out a few patterns and locations, it can be rewarding.

+1

Question about the river below the dam. At what temperature does turnover occur

Good question. Don't really know but right now the water is coming from the top gates. Once they make the switch from the top to the bottom gates, things will change again. usually after the lake turns the water from the bottom discharge is a little warmer then the river was when it was from the top discharge. So there is going to a be a period of cooling water while the water is discharged from the top, but it will warm up a few degrees when they make the switch to the bottom gates.. I would say the river will regulate a few days after the switch over to the bottom gates occur..

I don't believe rivers "turnover". Turnover happens on a lake because it stratifies or has cooler water on the bottom that circulates below a middle layer called the thermocline with moderate temps. when the top warmer layer cools the water becomes heavier and mixes with the other layers causing the lake to turnover.
In rivers these layers never form as the moving water mixes constantly causing very consistent temps top to bottom.
some lakes are similar to this because the water moves through to quickly and does not form a thermocline. Tionesta lake is one of these lakes but the temps are probably not as consistent as a river top to bottom.
If there is another way to define a river turnover I'd like to learn more.

no, the river never experiences "turnover",  but the lake above DOES and it has a definite affect on the temperature of the river water.

What we see is that the declining water temperature stops, and bounces up and down for a few days before, before it declines towards the yearly minimal temperature of 35 or so degrees.

I wished I had a the chart from last year, it was all very clear when the lake turnover happened...
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I think that its a bigger deal for the fishing to go from Top gates to bottom gates.  Not only does that alter temperature, that also alters the currents throughout the tailwaters.
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From a practical point of view, I'd keep informed as to all changes in water conditions, if you are looking for some kind of signal that its time to start fishing for fall/winter walleye. 

There's no pressure right now (and... no kidding..no bite) and when the day comes that the walleyes start to feed; it wouldn't make a lot of sense for me or others to post it for all the world to see.

Instead, do what we're doing.  Keep track of conditions, persistently fish the tailwaters and anticipate the bite that's certain to come.

Maybe i worded my question incorrectly. At some  time in october the river does get murky from the turnover that occured in the lake. It is usually around the middle of october.
I hope someone makes a note of that this year so i know when it happens.