Worst Storms you've fished or been through!

[FEAR NO FISH!]

It was my first trip to the Willamette for Spring Chinook season. I didn't have a clue about this fishery. With Mag-warts for weapons we tried to figure it out.
It started with the rain. Then came hail. The entire boat was covered in 2-3 inches of hail stones. I looked at my buddy and said "It don't get no better then this!" I was wrong.
We decided to anchor at the mouth of the Clack. The wind really started cooking. The trees were breaking branches off left and right. It was then that I witnessed a microburst. I was watching the trees when suddenly they lay completely over in a area of approx. 100 feet. These were not bushes, they were huge trees! Not only were branches floating down the river but now came trees! God won. We hightailed it back to the launch and I have never been back. I do all my springer fishing at the Wind River where it never blows! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

[FEAR NO FISH!]

Has this topic already been hashed over? I thought I was being original. Sorry if it has been done.

[Vinny]

FNF,
I'll say it again,

We're gonna change your Moniker to "Fear No Weather!" :grin:

Those micro bursts are kind of wild. I've never seen one. I think you're supposed to avoid them in airplanes, but I'm not sure about boats.

[ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Vinny ]</p>

[Jim]

I wasn't fishing but Duck Hunting...the wind was blowing so hard that as the ducks would set their wings they would go backwards...first block of mallards that came in that morning didn't get shot at...we all stood there in amazement. The rest of the ducks that day weren't that lucky.

Jim

[HOGTIDE]

The fishin' had been hot at Donaldsons against the rip rap for about 3 days in a row. So my partner and I decide to make a 3AM drift from Mills Bridge down. A thunder and lightening storm ensues. As we drift close to the cut bank, on the upper end of Donaldsons field , a bolt of lightening hits the large oak tree right on the banks edge. It was probably 20' away from us.

The wind of the bolt blasted us, the smell of electricity permiated us. But, most of all, we were thoroughly BLINDED. We could not see for an honest 3 or 4 minutes, which scared both of us to death. I grabbed an arm full of life jackets. Rich let go of the oars and grabbed me. Two blind dummies driftin helplessly down stream. Minutes literally seemed like hours. We finally regained our blurry-eyed vision and made a very quick trip to Sollie Smith after daylight.

The odd thing was the smell. Our clothing actually smelled like an electrical wiring short.

[Fishin Magician]

Back in 1996 there was a big snowstorm that hit on afternoon. A buddy of mine and I were fishing the sandy up near dodge park in the morning and decided to go up to cedar creek hatchery that afternoon. It was snowing and blowing but it didn't seem unfishable . When we started down the hill we met about 10 guys walking out, they were telling us to turn around it was getting bad. We didn't listen and walked on. when we got to the bottom and started to fish the weather then started to get ugly.Heavy snow and stronger winds. We were catching steelhead though so we decided to fish on........ well then it got really ugly. Trees started to topple over and you couldnt see 10' in front of your face. We started hiking out and lost the trail going up because of all the heavy sonw and blown over trees. after about an hour of hiking we ended up on the far end of the farmers field ( those who fish it know where I am talking about) . We found our way back to the trail and got to the rig. That was at 3:30 pm. I dropped him off in boring and started home to hillsboro. NOT!!!!!!!!! all the major roads were closed ,so I ended up going out hwy30 and over newberry rd, what a joy... . I got home at 10:00 pm safely. The good part of the stoy was we hooked 11 fish and brought home 4 chromers. I still have pictures from down in the canyon during the snowstorm, I am going to dig them out and I'll try to post a pic. I would do it again in a heartbeat though....... :grin: :grin: :grin:
John

[Flathead]

It was the 4th of July 1980. We were up at Paulina Lake fishing for kokanee. The morning started out sunny and cool. As the morning went along it warmed up looking to be a beutiful central oregon day. At around 11:00am some dark clouds started moving in from the northwest. Now, we had fished through several thunderstorms up there in the past and always caught several fish at the begining of a storm, so we were looking forward to a good thunderstorm. By noon the wind was howling and the temperature was falling fast, and it was getting dark enough to have to turn on the running lights on the boat. We were over by the summer homes at the southeast end of the lake. I decided that this was getting a little to nasty to stay out so we headed back towards the lodge ramp. At about half way back to the ramp it started snowing so hard that it was a complete white out, and the wind was blowing so hard that if you stuck your head above the windshield it felt like needles were hitting your face. Needless to say we were pretty shook-up. We were afraid to go any direction because we couldn't see anything. It snowed like that for 2 hours and dropped 16 inches. We stayed out on the lake until we could see well enough not to run into anything.

Whenever I'm fishing Paulina or East Lake I keep an eye out for dark clouds and dropping temperatures and get off the lake.

[FISHFINDER]

Three Rivers around 1988 or so. The Rogue and I fished below the deadline. We had to park my pickup in the middle of the parking lot because I was afraid the limbs that were blowing out of the trees would hit it. For some reason we weren't afraid of them hitting us though. We fished there by ouselves and could literally see the water rising as we fished. After hooking I don't know how many fish, we decided to drive into Pacific City and check out the flooding. We were barely able to drive down Main Street because the Nestucca had jumped it's banks and flooded it. We even saw dead chinook floating down the street. Would I do it again? Hell yes. :smile:

FF

[Fishing freak]

Fishing 3 years ago in January on the Wilson. Decided to make the drift although high wind warnings were in effect. It was calm as we launched from Mills bridge. By the time we reached the trailer park their were large limbs and trees splashing all around the boat. We decided to seek refuge from the falling debris on the gravel bar on the north side of the river ( two big guy's up front and it took a 1/2 hour of constant rowing to go the last 100 yards. After pulling the boat up on the gravel and dropping the anchor in unbearable wind a gust picked up my aluminum DB and launched it 40 ft out into the river ( turning it upside down). Lost about $600 dollars worth of gear ( one broken lamiglas rod,binoculars,camera,leatherman, fishbox, various
fishing tackle). The winds were reported to be 115 mph in Tillamook that day. Much to my chagrin, the next week I was fishing the Columbia for sturgeon when my boat had a safety check performed and I discovered that my boat registration was also gone. No sympathy from the sheriff, $115 for not having the registration.