The Perfect Storm (aka fishing on westside this afternoon)

[Bugmeister]

After waking up, hitting the gym, and taking a morning trail walk with my wife, I figured I had earned myself some fishing time this afternoon.

I pumped up the 11’ fishing kayak, grabbed the anchor system and all the related boat gear, and headed down to the lake. 1:30 pm barely a cloud in the sky, light breeze.

Fishing was steady; didn’t find anything on the surface and didn’t entice any bigger fish but the smaller bass and the perch were willing +. Photographed some of them (poorly as usual) for posterity:

 

[Bugmeister]

Fast forward to about 3:30 and it was victory at sea. I had to paddle across the open lake into ridiculous headwinds with gusts > 40 knots and - suddenly - some of the larger waves I’d seen on the lake in a long time. Photo of my journey below:

 

[Bugmeister]

Finally got to the beach and had to wrestle the boat and everything else back to my truck in howling winds.

My shoulders are smoked from the gym, the paddle, and then wrangling an 11’ boat over my head and carrying it through a windstorm while also carrying an anchor, seat, paddle, fly rod, and all my other fly fishing gear.

Totally worth it. I’m like a much-less-talented-much-less-good-looking version of Clooney except unlike his character in the movie…I caught fish and survived. Winning!

 

[Merle]

It was weird how it suddenly got so gusty and stormy this afternoon, after being so nice and sunny.

Glad you got off the water safely!

Those are some nice perch too!

 

[VMP]

It was weird how it suddenly got so gusty and stormy this afternoon, after being so nice and sunny.

Glad you got off the water safely!

Those are some nice perch too!

Fast forward to about 3:30 and it was victory at sea. I had to paddle across the open lake into ridiculous headwinds with gusts > 40 knots and - suddenly - some of the larger waves I’d seen on the lake in a long time. Photo of my journey below:

Happy you caught some nice fish and made it safely to shore! The day was deceptively nice early on followed by a small craft advisory and hazardous conditions, see below the sudden wall of wind that came associated by today's front measured at the West Point weather buoy. Not sure where you were fishing, but below some NOAA marine forecast, Windy app and local weather buoy data I use when planning my outings in Puget Sound and nearby areas, even using them I get surprised even now and then but it helps.

National Weather Service

marine.weather.gov

NDBC - 5-day plot - Wind Speed, Wind Gust and Atmospheric Pressure at WPOW1

National Data Buoy Center - 5-day plot - Wind Speed, Wind Gust and Atmospheric Pressure at C-MAN station WPOW1 (47.662N 122.436W) - West Point, WA.

www.ndbc.noaa.gov

Professional weather forecast

50+ weather layers, weather radar and satellite

www.windy.com

 

[Phil K]

That was right when I volunteered to make a quick grocery run on my bike. One of those crosswind gusts nearly took me down, and my eyes got filled with crap from all the dust being kicked up.