Chaz
I'm going to disagree. The Corps isn't increasing water "releases" this time of year. In fact they are holding back water to increase the pool to get up to the summer elevation of 1370'. Recently, the Corps has been holding back water on weekends so fisherman can access the river when under normal spring time flow conditions fisherman would have a very tough time fishing the river. For example, this past weekend the inflow into FEW was around 650 CFS. The Corps only released 400 cfs from Friday to Monday, thus holding back water and making the river more favorable to fisherman.
The Corps does release water during July and August to increase the river's flow when normally it was low and too warm for trout. Typically, during those months the Corps increases the rivers flow on non-whitewater release days at a rate of 100 cfs. So, if inflow to FEW on any given day in July is 200 cfs, the Corps will release 300 cfs. As I said before, this is adding benefit to the fishery as they are eliminating the typical lower flows in the river during the hottest time of year. By increasing the rivers volume it helps keep the river cooler than it has been in the past before these Flow Plans were even in operation.
Granted the coldwater runs out by Mid-July, but even so the releases are around 70F-72F at its warmest. Before the Flow plans, the releases were mid-to High 70s during July & August making trout survival dramatically more difficult.