Saturday was easy limits of crab with the Bug_Flicker.
Had a friend come up from the Clackamas River today (Sunday) and along with the two of us for the ride was his girlfriend Terri.
That's right, it was just a ride.
Ron upon arriving here wanted to know if there was someone we could call down there in Hammond since there was a bit of a breeze here in Longview.
So to the computer and Super Pages I went.
Under the subject of fishing, and the town of Hammond chosen, I came up with Free Willy Bait Tackle & Guide.
He made the call and the gal working there told him it was sloppy, boats were coming in and it was blowing 25.
Well all I heard was the 25 kts on his end of the conversation and the PC showed 15 for the forecast so I decided to make a couple other calls.
Corkies in Hammond said the weather was fine.
Clear skies, wasn't blowing much (which he gages by something or other outside) and good to go as far as crabbing goes.
Well, we got a discrepancy so the coast guard was going to be the tie breaker.
Called US Coast Guard station Ilwaco and I got another gal on the phone and she says oh, it’s only light to variable, lots of small boats out, etc.
So instead of going to the Elocoman (plan “B”) and fishing for winters or Ilwaco (plan “C”) to duck the east wind, we were Astoria/Hammond bound.
The river looked fine all the way down (where you could see it close to Astoria) and it wasn’t until we got to Hammond we were in for an unpleasant surprise (wind and sheep)! [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]
Ron talked to the coast guard that just escorted a small boat in and I talked to another crabber getting ready to go.
We decided to go play Popeye.
Heck it wasn’t bad until you got out of the marina.
And then it sucked.
Sorry, couldn’t think of a better word for it. :grin:
We went the distance about a mile down river to the crab area with Ron & Terri watching/avoiding crab pots and I was baiting ours.
I’m not sure how big his sled is but it wasn’t big enough.
I felt like I was once again commercial crabbing.
There was no way in hell we were going to drop those pots as bad as we wanted to.
It was bad. I’d say 4’ wind chop. Steep chop.
We were headed back to refuge as fast as we came.
So we learned a lesson and made a few mistakes.
I should have trusted the gal’s opinion that I believe might own Free Willy’s.
Found out later after I was down there that she is an honest person and tells it like it is instead of telling the fib that so many do to get you down there along with your money.
Should have gone with our gut feeling and went with plan “B” the Elocoman that was clear but on the high side or plan “C” that would have afforded us some protection from the east wind.
Or plan “D”, the Cowlitz, Bob’s, stayed home and watched a football game or something. :grin:
So if I was looking for an accurate truthful up-to-date weather report in the Hammond area again, I’d call Free Willy’s in Hammond.
She told me she wouldn’t lie to potential customers and today found her true full.
[ 12-01-2003, 08:00 AM: Message edited by: Born to be Wild ]
Another Day, Not Another Crab - Hammond
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