NORTHAMPTON — Water levels were receding Friday after a rainy stretch to start the month, but many boaters and fishermen were still cautious about going out on the region’s rivers.

“This is exceptional, what’s going on,” said Ken Salem, a Northampton furniture maker and avid fly fisherman who said he’s been on the rivers for 20 years. “I’ll be out two, three times a day normally — I’ve been out three times this year.”

Rainy weather and storms with a northerly flow have kept water levels high on the Connecticut, Deerfield and Westfield rivers for several weeks, Salem said. Northampton recorded almost 3 inches of rain just from Sunday through Tuesday, an unusual amount.

“The entire system is chock-a-block full of water,” he said.

The high water has put a damper on the season for members of the Yankee Rowing Club, who put their shells in from Sportsman’s Marina in Hadley. Normally in the summer months, some two dozen rowers will go out every three days. In the past week, only seven have braved the current — and one of them got jammed against a log and had to be rescued, club member Craig Schiff said.

Downriver at Brunelle’s in South Hadley, owner Luke Brunelle said nobody had launched out of the marina’s docks in recent days. High flows and debris have combined to shut things down.

“We spent the last two days pulling logs off our docks,” he said.

He said he was hoping to get boats back out on Friday afternoon.

At Mitch’s Marina in Hadley, co-owner Merv Broussard said, the water came up to just below 6 feet on the measuring pole — high but not so high that the campers up the bank need to clear out.

Debris hasn’t been too much of a problem.

“A couple of good-sized trees came down,” he said.

Salem said water levels are a secondary consideration for him.

“How much water’s going through the system is what you want to know,” he said.

Streamflow on the Connecticut rIVER at the I-391 bridge in Holyoke has been above median levels, which are around 10,000 cubic feet per second at this time of year, since June 26, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s water data site. On July 4, the flow topped 40,000 cubic feet per second and remained at that level until it started dropping Thursday morning.

By noon Friday, it was still high at 26,200 cubic feet per second.

Salem also noted that sewage breaks have raised red flags. Amherst dumped unchlorinated sewage into the Connecticut on June 15, and Holyoke’s sewage system routinely overflows into the river at times of heavy rain.

“It’s been a very frustrating year,” he said. “It’s gotten into a rhythm that’s brutal.”

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