On the Water Log, January 18, 2010
I know it’s a mistake to assume that everyone who reads this blog has at least a vague idea of the current weather on the West End. It’s also probably a mistake to assume that folks understand that when I don’t post for a while it is because the rivers haven’t been fishable.
Nonetheless, I make both of these mistakes on a regular basis during the winter.
So let me be precise: I haven’t fished for two weeks because every time I have had a chance to the rivers have been badly out of shape, at least for the type of wading and swinging that I prefer.
Here are the rainfall numbers for between Friday the 8th of January and last Thursday, the 14th: 1/8–1.34 inches; 1/9–1.14; 1/10–.08; 1/11–5.38; 1/12–2.98; 1/13–1.68; 1/14–4.36.
So far, we have had a total of 23.67 inches in January. That compares to an average of 9.69 for the period. We only had 8.25 inches in December.
We got another big pulse of rain and wind last night, as well. However, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as early weather forecasts suggested it could have been.
Eliana and I took Lily, our yellow Lab, out to Rialto Beach this morning to look at the surf. It was pretty impressive. I bet some of the waves were 20 feet.
From the looks of the Bogachiel and Sol Duc at Leyendeckers, I wouldn’t count on fly fishing for a few days, at least. At least the long term forecast looks good.
As a result of the bad river conditions, I’ve been tying more flies. I’ve tied so many since the holidays, in fact, I had to buy two new fly boxes. Well, actually they’re old Perrine boxes, which I like and are becoming increasingly hard to get. I got them from Bob Gooding, at Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks.