fishing outside the bar
- Thread starter dem
- Start date
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.
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
Eat a lot of ginger snap cookies, they'll help to keep your breakfast down....and don't tie any knots
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 :lol: (about twice a season :sad) 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.
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 :lol: (about twice a season :sad) 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
New member
A great synopsis of how and when to transit the CR bar. Like Mike, I've been across the bar several times, about half on small boats in the 20-25 foot range and the other half on 40 foot vessels (charter boats, mainly, and the last time, a 40-foot motor sailor with a staysail up).TyBoo":1z4tkni7 said:
There are several aspects of the CR bar which can make trouble, some subtle, and some not. Even in the vicinity of Buoy 10 (not really over the bar) things can get pretty nasty. One problem Mike did not mention is: drifting onto Clatsop Spit. This is a common cause of capsizings and drownings. The Spit is to the south of the channel, adjacent to Buoy 10, and because it shoals fairly rapidly, it is easy to drift over there if you are not watching, into rougher water where swells begin to peak up, and possibly get caught by a much larger than average wave.
The motor sailor I mentioned almost ended up over there ... with four experienced boaters aboard ... nav screen going the whole time ... because we were concentrating on the heading of the boat, and not its course. It wasn't until I looked up from fishing and spotted a red buoy off the stern quarter and wondered "What buoy is that? Ten should be off the other stern quarter," that it became obvious the staysail and NW wind had caused our course to carry us SE, even though our heading was East!
One glance at the course plotter, and it was plain in 10 more minutes we would have been in 10 feet of water, and in "duck soup," as Martha might call it.
Yes, none of the four experienced boaters was watching the nav screen! We were fishing, eating, BSing, and enjoying some relief from the nasty water we had fished outside all day, never aware we were headed for danger. Would have been very embarrassing for us to get nailed over there, two of us having boated and lived down here for over 35 years! :roll:
