Bar Report Garibaldi & Astoria?

[finclipped]

I am still looking to make the first trip of the season accross the Bar. Can someone give me a Report for Garibaldi and Astoria? Did anyone try yesterday? I would like to go tommorrow, but the morning Ebb tide has me concerned.

[finclipped]

Back to the top.

[Pilar]

Hi finclipped. Good job! You are right to be concerned about the ebb tide in the morning. The max current will occur about 3 hours before low tide. Having said that, there is no warning posted by NOAA for the Columbia River Bar today or on Saturday at this time. The wind is light from the NW, 10kt and the trend is stable. Swells are 4ft today building to 6ft. tomorrow. Sunday is not predicted yet.

I plan to fish Garibaldi Sat, Sun and Mon. Maybe I'll see you there. I'm going to camp at Barview park. Look for the white on blue bayliner that says 'Pilar' on the side and back. We will push off at first light and if the Coast Guard allows it, cross the bar then. If the conditions worsen they will make us wait until low slack tide before they allow sport boats across the bar.

The tides are predicted as follows for the weekend in Garibaldi;

Sat. Low 0906, -0.8 | High 1553, 6.3

I'd cross no later than 6am Saturday morning and avoid it between 0600 and 0800. That would be the max bar.

Sun. Low 0942, -0.6 | High 1629, 6.3

Same deal here but you have until 0630am, avoid between 0630 and 0830.

Mon. Low 1017, -0.3 | High 1705, 6.3

Cross by 0700 and avoid 0700 to 0900.

If it looks too rough, it is! The Coast Guard will cork the bar if they think it is too ugly.

Last thing is to make sure you watch the wind. The swell is increasing and you have less margin for wind chop now than last week.
Try to be off the water by noon if the wind is blowing. Salmon eat breakfast so start early and limit early with doubles and triples!

Good luck all.

[ 07-06-2001: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[finclipped]

Thanks for the good info Pilar. We'll be at Garibaldi at close to daylight and try to get over the bar by 5:30. Hopefully we'll have limits before the afternoon wind picks up. I'll watch for the "Pilar". I'll be in a 24ft White Fiberform. The Boats name is "Lucky Lane."

[Drachir]

We went out of Garabaldi this AM (Sat) at about 8AM. There were rough bar lights flashing, but the bar was open and a Coast Guard Vessel standing by if needed. We had no problem getting out off toward the NW from the North Jetty. Once over the bar the ocean was great. Only 4' gentle rollers, and no wind to speak of until 10:30. The fishing was good for us, with limits for the 3 of us.
We fished divers @ 13-15 pulls, and the hot rod had a bright green Delta diver, and no flasher. Most fish we saw caught were using flashers. According to ODFW @ ramp we were one lucky few who got limits. If you want to go down, I would suggest you get boat in water at first light and head on out, should be good, and earlier in AM the better.

[ 07-07-2001: Message edited by: Drachir ]

[Hookset]

Drachir, How big was the boat you were in today? I've been checking and watching the conditions on the web and trying to match them to personal accounts of ocean conditions. Nice to know the lights were flashing, suspect the bar was up from the outgoing tide. Were the waves breaking or large rollers?

Where you fishing herring, hootchies or fly's or??

thanks,

Gregg

[Stz ll]

Hookset, I can answer that question since we were in my boat. I have an 18 foot Formula Vee inboard. There were some breakers on the south jetty and some breakers off of the north jetty. There was a pretty good hole on the north side since the breakers wdere right on the tip of the jetty. We just kind of waited at the bar for what looked like a good time. We then proceeded to go. no breakers just rollers. We had to power over some of the bigger rollers. It was a short trip over the bar and into the ocean. Once in the ocean it was really nice. I had the hot rod which was set up with a green Delta diver. I was using whole green label herring. No hoochies. I put both hooks of a sliding leader in to the side of the herring and then use a nose clip to keep the mouth shut. Usually I use a small brass egg hook but I was afraid to because it would have been a third hook. Hope you get a chance to down and get some. images/icons/smile.gif images/icons/smile.gif

[finclipped]

I have to say that Pilar was right on the money with his bar suggestions. At 5:30 in the morning, we simply crossed the bar with no fanfair. No rough bar lights, and coast guard was waving as we went by. I had a hard time finding the fish, but once we did limited within two hours. Biggest of the day was a 34 pound Chinook. Guess who caught that one. images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif The trip back in at 10:00 was a little rougher, but still passable.

[Hookset]

Thanks for the current info Stz II and finclipped. Really appreciate the 3 of you sharing your sucess and productive tactics from todays trip. Goes to show how the power of the web and IFish speaks volumes when you mix in the right people. images/icons/wink.gif

From reading the reports sounds like everyone is heading north, is that about right? I'd like to fish tomorrow but can't find any takers. Besides, judging from the current buoy data, the swell height is picking up and I'm a very cautious about the ocean.

Thanks again,

Gregg

[finclipped]

Hookset, about 225 ft deep straight out from twin rocks is where we were at. We couldn't find them in the morning, so we just waited until we saw a cluster of boats and headed that direction. When we got there, it was Fish-On!

Swells kept me from going over the Astoria Bar today, so I slept in. I hope you made it over.

[Hookset]

Nope, last nights conditions weren't looking that great and sleeped in myslef. I'm planning a coho sturgeon slay feast next weekend starting Friday. Let's hope for improved conditions.

Thanks for the update.

Gregg

[Drachir]

Yesterday we fished in 220 feet straight out from Twin Rocks as well. We saw most boats inside from our location and they were not doing as well as we did. You have to get out further to get your fish. It will pay off if you do.

[Bait O' Eggs]

I went out today with Waterdog (and his dad) out of Garibaldi (thanks for the trip buddy).

Yesterday the Coast Guard closed the bar for a few hours in the morning. When they finally opened it, the first guy was so excited to get across he hit a wave so hard he compressed a vertabre and parallized himelf (temporary ??) and the CG had to board his boat to get him and his vessel in. Another guy hit a wave so hard he had to get CG assistance (not sure what his problem was). So today when they closed the bar they kept it closed until things really settled down.

We snuck across the bar at 4:30 AM and we were only one of two boats who made it out. The CG plugged the bar at 4:31 +/- and didnt release it until a little after 9 this morning. If you didnt have a 26 foot boat the CG didnt let you cross.

It was kind of strange being in the ocean all alone, we didnt see the other guy who crossed (the CG told my dad later 2 boats got out before they closed it, we must have been one images/icons/smile.gif )

Waterdog is no bar crossing master, and hey, since it wasnt my boat it all looked good images/icons/wink.gif Actually I called the CG for a bar report when it was still dark because we couldnt see it. They asked us to go to channel 22 and then they gave a report that made no sense. They rattled off numbers and letters images/icons/confused.gif images/icons/confused.gif and then said CG out. Since we didnt hear the word closed in there anywhere it must have not been too bad. images/icons/shocked.gif images/icons/shocked.gif

It was kind of bad. OK maybe a little more bad than we needed in the dark, but once we got across the bar and out of those rollers that were about 10 feet over our head when we were in the trough, the ocean was as calm as could be. Waterdog didnt know good from bad, but I think he was sensing bad since he said something about consulting with his underwear man for cleaning advise.

We started fishing at about 150 feet and didnt hit a fish until 190 feet. We turned south and stayed in the 190's for a long time. We boated 3 clipped on that pass. We dinked around and ended up running back in and starting off again at 150 ft images/icons/frown.gif No fish until we were out again to 190 + . Then we see some of the pleasure yachts (26ft +) fishing out at 235 feet and we trolled out to see them. We picked up another clipped and 3 with adipose fins. We ended up with 4 fish in the box and 3 released.

We were the boat at the dock with the most fish when we came in around noon thirty or so. I guess we kind of got a head start.

Great trip, the fish have moved out since last weekend, since we did best in 150 to 190 last week. If you are going out concentrate from 190 to 240 feet or so. With nobody else out there to help guide us into the fish we had to kind of stumble around and find them. But we had fun. images/icons/tongue.gif

[WaterDog]

Check please! Underwear check please! Yup, S@#T! images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Well I figured since I had such a well seasoned t-bay veteran on board, there should be no problem. images/icons/rolleyes.gif I would have NEVER gone out there on my own and I don't think I would attempt it again without more help. Go with Bait again? Ah hell, why not! images/icons/shocked.gif A little adrenaline is a good thing. Right?

This was my second time over this bar, the first time we were just joy riding on a crabbing trip and it looked nothing like it did at O-dark-thirty.

Anyway, we had a great time and had the whole lake to oursleves for a while in the AM. images/icons/grin.gif We boated some fish and I for one learned alot and appreciated having the experience.

I even let Bait run my boat back in just so he could feel what it's like to have power to spare! images/icons/wink.gif images/icons/tongue.gif