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Jeff, what you're getting at is correlation information. Normally the focus is on useful correlations between a gauge on river A and a direct or indirect tributary B (e.g., the Lamoille's Johnson gauge and the North Branch of the Lamoille), but one could a correlation between flows at a gauge and runnability of flat water either upstream or downstream of the gauge. (American Whitewater incorporates some correlation guidance into its River Guide, but in general that isn't directly applicable to quiet water trips.)
I don't know if anyone has specifically compiled and published guidance on how to interpret levels at the various USGS gauges to help plan flat water river trips. It would be great information to have. I could offer some rough guidance on a few rivers in northwest and central Vermont, but I don't know much about the Connecticut.
The rivers I could say something about are the Lamoille, Winooski, Mad, and White. It should be noted that the upper White River shares part of its northern watershed with the New Haven and the Mad, so all these rivers tend to come up together in response to a given localized rain event. (Of course, with summer storms there can be glaring exceptions.)
The upper White also has at least one substantial tributary coming in from the south, namely the Tweed River (confluence in Stockbridge), which might be expected to come up when Otter Creek's Rutland gauge comes up.
NFCT's Stewardship Director, Noah Pollock, lives in or near Sharon and could probably say quite a bit about the upper Connecticut. His NFCT bio also notes that he works on projects of other paddlers' trails, and with Friends of the Winooski River:
Noah manages construction and maintenance of the trail and oversees the summer intern stewardship crew. An accomplished trail builder, community organizer and paddler, Noah also leads projects for the Vermont River Conservancy, including the Lamoille Valley Paddlers Trail and the Connecticut River Paddlers Trail.
