fishing outside the bar

[dem]

just registered. am looking to get a 25 footer in one to two years. my question is would you go out over the columbia river bar and fish in buoy 10 waters? I fished out of ilwaco this summer on a chartered 32 footer and it was very rough.

[thataway]

Although I don't live up that way--I have gone in and out of the Columbia a few times--Like any boat--you have to watch the weather. There are certain weather conditions--onshore breeze, ebb current which make any bar very dangerous--so timing and weather are extremely important. Also when you go out--you must know what it will be like when you come back in! Time it properly and it will be safe.

[dem]

thanks for the info. next time i will take the motion sickness pills the night before, also. Its hard to pull in the coho while vomitting!

[B~C]

Welcome Dem, There are quite a few Brats here that cross the bar to chase those salmon. As Bob said, timing and conditions dictate if you go or not, and, it's nice to be able to return safely. We've been out on some days when you could water ski the water was so flat and other days that are real white knucklers. With it's ability to be on plain and in control at slow speeds, the C-D is a pretty decent boat for taking on big lumpy water.
Eat a lot of ginger snap cookies, they'll help to keep your breakfast down....and don't tie any knots

[dem]

this is great news. If the 25 cd can do that, then its the boat for me. The only other thing I'd like to do someday is go up the inside passage to somewhere in alaska.
thanks for the reply.

[TyBoo]

Yep - tides, times and conditions are the key. I have been over the CR bar in both my previous CD22 and the CD25 I have now. The 25 takes the water better and is much more stable and safe-feeling while underway. But for fishing out there, the CD22 is hands down best from both an efficiency and safety standpoint because it does not have the raised deck in the cockpit like the CD25.

There are no reliable rules for the CR bar, but the best conditions are a small tide change timed so that you can cross out early in the morning at the start of the incoming and return before noon at high slack. There are usually several weekends in July and August when it works out like that. In the summer months, there is almost always a NW wind that comes up in the late morning/early afternoon. It can make things real sloppy even if the seas themselves are not too bad. Wind waves and ocean swells meeting up at odd angles can really toss a small boat around. And it can be a long ride. Sometimes the collision between river and sea can go on for five miles. But on nice days (about twice a season ) you can't even tell where the two meet.

Since I am still scared of the CR bar I pick my days pretty conservatively. There have only been a few times when things got uglier than I am comfortable with on the way back in, and even then I didn't feel in danger. But it can make for a long miserable trip home.

[AstoriaDave]