Monday Feb 2

Hello Everyone,
I am finally back from a few weeks in the wilderness and itchin' for some fishin'. I don't know what is open yet beyond steelhead, but the forecast for Monday looks wonderful. Anyone looking for a reason to play hooky and paddle/peddle a bit. I'm looking to head out to the coast from Salmon river north, Columbia or Willamette.

Any takers or advice ??

Jay

Any chance you can take Tuesday off?  My friend Jim is coming through town late on Monday and we may go out on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, after taking the past 3+ weeks away from work, I won't have much flexibility in my schedule for a while.

Unfortunately, after taking the past 3+ weeks away from work, I won't have much flexibility in my schedule for a while.

So what have you been doing the past 3 weeks man?  Reports and pics please ... 

-Allen

I can post pics if you really want them (when I get home tonight)...

Every other January, my wife and I teach a class for Linfield College (she's a professor there) called Outdoor Environmental Studies. The academic topics this year included environmental ethics, American nature writing, clouds and weather forecasting and wilderness first aid. After the first week in town doing lectures, we head out to the Three Sisters Wilderness for a couple of weeks of snow camping, gourmet cooking and backcountry skiing. We had 7 students this year, ranging from never skied before to a couple of lifetime skiers.

Now I'm ready to get out on the water again.

I would love to see some pic's...  2 weeks of snow camping..  Wow..  I did a week solid  when I worked for Fish and Wildlife and I was really ready for a warm shower/bed by day 3..

Pacific City/Cape Kiwanda forecast for Monday as of Saturday afternoon...anyone care to join me ??

Temp: high 40's to low 50's

Seas: SSE wind 4 to 8 kt becoming SW. Mostly sunny. WNW swell 1 foot or less. Wind waves 2 ft or less.  Sounds chum-free to me !!!

If not, I'll probably paddle around Multnomah Channel for early steel or springers.

Jay

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=45.20913363773731&lon=-123.98483276367187&site=pqr&smap=1&marine=1&unit=0&lg=en

Another cut and paste forecast from the same website, centered on Cape Lookout, just a bit north of Cape Kiwanda...

Monday: SSE wind 4 to 9 kt becoming SSW. Mostly sunny. WNW swell 8 feet. Wind waves 2 ft or less.

This sounds more like the PNW in early Feb. The other seems stuck on <2ft swells from Monday through Wednesday. Can the swell vary that much over only a 10-20 mile distance?


http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=45.33090957287155&lon=-123.9971923828125&site=pqr&smap=1&marine=1&unit=0&lg=en

This may provide some reason to the differences...

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON DC
1045 PM EDT THU JAN 8 2009

TO:    SUBSCRIBERS:
         -FAMILY OF SERVICES
         -NOAA WEATHER WIRE SERVICE
         -EMERGENCY MANAGERS WEATHER INFORMATION NETWORK
         OTHER NWS PARTNERS...AND NWS EMPLOYEES

FROM:    ROBERT BUNGE
    INTERNET DISSEMINATION OFFICER
         OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

SUBJECT: SOLICITING COMMENTS BY NOVEMBER 30 2009 ON TESTING OF
         NWS MARINE POINT FORECAST PAGES
 

BEGINNING WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14...ASSUMING NO CRITICAL WEATHER...
NWS WILL START TESTING MARINE POINT FORECAST AND HOURLY WEATHER
GRAPHS PAGES FOR COASTAL MARINE FORECAST ZONES FROM NWS WEATHER
FORECAST OFFICE /WFO/ WEB PAGES. SIMILAR MARINE POINT FORECAST
PAGES ARE CURRENTLY IN OPERATION FROM WFO WEB PAGES WITH
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE GREAT LAKES. 

THESE FORECAST WEB PAGES USE INFORMATION FROM THE NATIONAL DIGITAL
FORECAST DATABASE /NDFD/ TO AUTOMATICALLY GENERATE FORECAST
WORDING FOR THE SELECTED GRID POINT AND GRAPHICAL ICONS. 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IMPORTANT TO MARINERS...INCLUDING CURRENT
MARINE WATCHES... WARNINGS...ADVISORIES...NEARBY SURFACE
OBSERVATIONS AND OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION IS PROVIDED IN AN
EFFORT TO PROVIDE ONE-STOP SERVICE.

FORECAST INFORMATION FOR THESE MARINE POINT FORECAST PAGES IS
BASED ON GRIDDED DATA. EACH GRID SQUARE IS EITHER 2.5 X 2.5 KM OR
5 X 5 KM PER SIDE DEPENDING ON AVAILABLE RESOLUTION. THE SELECTED
FORECAST AREA /GRID SQUARE/ IS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED ON A MAP ON
THE MARINE POINT FORECAST PAGE. OTHER DESIRED MARINE FORECAST
POINTS CAN BE SELECTED FROM THIS SAME MAP.

MARINERS ARE CAUTIONED THAT THESE FORECASTS ARE VALID ONLY FOR THE
SELECTED GRID POINT...NOT FOR THE LARGER SURROUNDING AREAS.
MARINERS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO ALSO CHECK MARINE FORECASTS FOR
SURROUNDING AREAS OR USE LINK ON THE POINT FORECAST PAGE TO THE
SURROUNDING ZONE FORECAST.

THE FOLLOWING NWS OFFICES WILL TAKE PART IN THIS TEST. THE OFFICE
NAME AND URL IS PROVIDED BELOW:

SEATTLE WA / WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE
PORTLAND OR / WEATHER.GOV/PORTLAND
MEDFORD OR / WEATHER.GOV/MEDFORD
EUREKA CA / WEATHER.GOV/EUREKA
MONTEREY/SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CA / WEATHER.GOV/SANFRANCISCO
LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA / WEATHER.GOV/LOSANGELES
SAN DIEGO CA / WEATHER.GOV/SANDIEGO
HONOLULU HI / WEATHER.GOV/HFO
BROWNSVILLE TX / WEATHER.GOV/BROWNSVILLE
CORPUS CHRISTI TX / WEATHER.GOV/CORPUSCHRISTI 
HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX / WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/HGX/
LAKE CHARLES LA / WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/LCH/
NEW ORLEANS LA / WEATHER.GOV/NEWORLEANS 
MOBILE AL / WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/MOB/
TALLAHASSEE FL / WEATHER.GOV/TALLAHASSEE 
TAMPA BAY FL / WEATHER.GOV/TAMPA 
KEY WEST FL / WEATHER.GOV/KEYWEST 
MIAMI FL / WEATHER.GOV/MIAMI 
MELBOURNE FL / WEATHER.GOV/MELBOURNE 
JACKSONVILLE FL / WEATHER.GOV/JACKSONVILLE 
SAN JUAN PR / WEATHER.GOV/SANJUAN
WAKEFIELD VA /WEATHER.GOV/AKQ

I would love to see some pic's...  2 weeks of snow camping..  Wow..  I did a week solid  when I worked for Fish and Wildlife and I was really ready for a warm shower/bed by day 3..

Here is a link to our blog which has a set of links to the pics.

http://jjpeterberger.blogspot.com/

Jay,

Thanks for hunting down the discrepancy in the NOAA forecasts.  I was excited for a minute there.

Brian

Jay, check out Magic Seaweed. It's another place to get info on specific areas. I have found it to be pretty accurate.

http://www.magicseaweed.com

It also has tide information which is very useful.

Dave

Well it's a good thing I looked at the surrounding forecasts as well. The "experimental" marine point forecast still has a way to go. It was a beautiful day but fishing 7-8 foot swells by myself was not something I was ready to do today. So after gearing up, paddling out and wetting a line for about 10 minutes, I stowed my gear and headed back in. The surfers working the beach break looked at me in disbelief.

I had lunch then headed over to the Nestucca to catch the incoming afternoon tide. As I said, it was a beautiful day to paddle. No bites or even fish seen/marked.

It felt good to be back in the water but now I need to catch something to bring home. Maybe next Sunday or Monday.

Be safe and have fun too,
Jay