Fishing?

Weekend at the beach...



When we arrived

We had a plan to go fishing for Salmon and Cod, plus crab, then maybe dig for clams. We had rented a house on the beach in Netarts, besides the fishing we would do some hiking and just relax for a few days. Sounds great. But reality… A storm was coming in and I checked the weather report. Small craft advisory all weekend, gale force winds, heavy rain was what was predicted. I thought there was no way we were going fishing, but some had more optimism and we still were on.

The drive to the coast wasn’t bad, a little light rain but nothing that would be so bad we couldn’t fish in it. Found the house and it was over looking a great spot on the north Oregon coast. Already the wine was open and food was out, the others were there already having a great time. I still didn’t think we would be fishing in the morning. But the optimism was still going strong.

Within a few hours, the wind was up and the rain was falling. By nine o’clock the wind was blowing the rain sideways and the sky was lit up by lighting. We were not going fishing…. During the flashes, we could hardly see the trees out side because the rain was so heavy. The windows were being pelted by rain and the sound was like a fire hose was spraying the house. I am sure the fish were happy since no one would be fishing for them this weekend.



At Lincoln City

Saturday morning broke with incredible amounts of rain and wind. Fishing was off but we decided to drive down the coast a few miles to visit a local beach. We had no illusion of sitting on the sand, but wanted to just have a look and get out and do something. Our group climbed into a couple of cars and off we went, we hoped the road was open…



Stormy weather

Though there was a lot of debris on the road, it was passable and drivable. As we drove the rain let up a bit but the wind was still strong. Our destination was the town of Lincoln City, a small beach town just a few miles south of where we were staying. Well the rain kind of stopped when we arrived but the wind was blowing the sand on the beach so hard it was like being sand-blasted. We all went into the only restaurant on the beach for a drink, but the beach was not the place to be.



A lull in the storm

We though that we might be able to hike since it stopped raining so we climbed into the cars and headed off to a state park. A very good hiking trail was on a point and we thought we would see how it was. Well the wind was still very strong, in reality it was like hurricane force. The trees were blowing so much we thought they would break, some did. We walked about 100 yards down a trail and decided that it was just not worth the risk, so back to the cars and a drive up the beach.

   

On the hike

We stopped one more time to see how the beach looked and we found monster waves, blowing foam, blowing sand, flying debris. OK we had enough, back to the house and get dry. It was too bad the weather was so bad, the area is very nice and can be a wonderful place to visit, but not when it is raining so hard. Actually it ended up raining more than 6 inches over the weekend. That’s a lot of rain!