Excellent topic, Michael. Thanks.
The decision to go fishing in the Columbia River just outside my home port is usually made by poking the nose of the boat out the harbor channel and looking it over. We can count on some swells and chop around the low tide, but it is easy to stay out of and will subside at slack water. If it is windy at home, I will check the
Clatsop Spit wind report on the web. Clatsop Spit is a couple miles inside the south jetty at the end of the Columbia.
I have my own little set of rules to determine if a trip across the bar to the Pacific Ocean is a go. First, I check the NOAA web site before leaving the house (
here's the local report, which is the same as comes over the VHF weather channel). I also check the
web report for a weather buoy which is about 20 miles offshore in the Pacific from the CR bar. That gives me an idea of the ocean surface conditions. Another real accurate check is to stand outside the back of my house before daylight and listen to how loud the ocean is roaring. I am also pretty particular about the tides and times when considering a trip outside. If there is a big minus tide (-2' is a big low for us), and/or a big swing between high and low (10' is big for us), then every other condition has to be excellent for it to be a go. The best time to cross the CR bar is high slack. I like to see a very early low tide (like at daylight), and run out just after the incoming starts. Then we can catch our fish and be back in before high tide six hours or so later. I am also comfortable, sometimes, going out at high water and staying out until the ebb is over and the tide starts back in (if the timing is right, of course). Another factor here is that the wind will always pick up a little (or a lot) between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm and stay until evening. The wind is always from the north-northwest, as are the wind waves it makes, and if the swells on the bar are running east/west, it can make for some dicey conditions in a CD with its shallow draft. So, I like to pick days when the tides are favorable, and we always plan to return across the bar by noon, or 1:00 pm if there is not much breeze. Early in the ebb is usually OK if the tide change is small, but it has to be a real nice day for me to feel comfortable with it. We can also call the CG on VHF 16 for a bar report any time. Or call B~C on 68 if you can get him to answer, because he is usually already out there this time of year.
There are a couple simple rules of thumb we hear often around here. One is that if the swell height plus the wind wave height is equal to or greater than the time between the swells, it is best to stay home. Another is that if a similar sized boat disappears in the next trough over between swells, you shouldn't be in them.
When I venture across the CR bar, following my own rules, it is pretty flat and easy. But it can get snotty in a hurry. It is known as the most treacherous bar in the world for a reason. I'm mighty respectful of it. I had an uncle whose name is on the Mariners' Memorial Wall in Astoria, and that's more than enough instances of the Barber name on there. There are places on the Oregon coast that can have taller water at a bar crossing, but the CR bar can be 5 or more miles wide if it wants to, and nasty all the way. Hard to turn around in sometimes, too.
Now then, during sturgeon season when I come home from work and cross the Youngs Bay bridge at 4:00 in the afternoon, if there are no whitecaps in the river ship channel (or maybe just a few), it is fair game for a trip out to the sturgeon hole. For that, we anchor in the river just outside the harbor entrance, and no whitecaps means not enough wind to swing the boat around. You gotta be real still to snag them sturgeon.
