Waves

Hey everyone,
                  I'm still on the pacific coast working for a living. I'll be back in the next few weeks. I drive along the cost every day and the Pacific Ocean  instills little fear into me. I think Erie is far more hostile than what I have seen on this ocean the past few months I have been here. There have been times but Erie throwing a fit  seems to be worse.  The reason I'm babbling about this is because I would like to start a thread about some of the worst weather you have found yourselves in?  I've been in 4 footers on Erie and it was not fun, I can just imagine some of the stories out there.  

40 ft sailboat outside off ny on the atlantic, in 60 mph gusts w/ zero visibility and heavy downpour.

38 ft sail in chesapeake, w/sustained 35's and 45 gusts and heavy downpour, this rain came down so fast.

outside of R.I. in 8 ft seas in a 44 ft sail.

These all happened on a trip and all w/ little warning.The first one was coming back in from trip for a week up to long island ny and we saw the storm come at us and we picked a spot to stay and just did circles till it ended.

the 2nd was coming into an anchorage for the evening and in a river, again we stayed in one place and circled till it ended.

the 3rd was coming back in from a week off block is., and the forecast turned sour.

Pymatuning has humbled us on a couple occasions. If you've been on this lake when the weather turns, you know what I'm talking about.

pymatuning got the best of me last may of of harris island motor quit waves huge rollers thank god the minn kota got me in took 1hr and lots of hail marys,no kiddin i was scared!

Erie from glass flat to 6 ft (true 6 ft) in less than 15 min.  Small 16ft half way between barcelona and dunkirk.......bad scene.

Me and a buddy were 7 miles off the coast of Hilton Head in my 12 foot deep-V flyfishing for Blue Marlin when I hooked into a 900 pounder.  I had to let him run a bit with 7X tippet, and was so busy playing him that we didn't notice the Bahrainian Freighter passing close by.  Anywhoo, we got sucked into the ballast and didn't emerge until 2 days later in New York Harbor, right in front of the Statue of Liberty.  Landed the fish though.  After that, I added an extra 50 feet of backing to my reel as the fish nearly spooled me.  True story.

pymatuning is a bad mammy jammer I kissed my but goodbye a few times!!!!
waves so high they hit the road on the causway....

Pymy does get bad.......Mostly because people don't expect it.

Stupid is as Stupid does!  Late September, 70-75 degrees, Coneaut Harbor, forecast decreasing light winds out of west, waves 0 to 2 ft, mild to increasing haze, possible evening scattered thunder storms.  One of the few times I've ever put my 16ft bass boat on lake erie.  Conditions looked great, & my dad wanted to do a little perch fishing.  Hit the water at 7am, and the lake was like a farm pond.  Shot out about 4 miles, found some fish in 30-35 feet, but mostly small.  Saw a school of boats a little farther out, so we decided to venture a little further.  They were sitting on a school of slab perch, 13-15 inches.  The bite was slow, but the fish were big.  As the light wind blew us further east, the bite picked up and things couldn't have been better.  By noon or 1:00, we were only about a dozen fish shy of our limit, but we noticed two troubling things.  First, a haze had blown in to our south, and we could no longer see the shore.  Second, we began to notice how the boat was rocking.  It wasn't rough, just broad rolling swells were making us a little unstable on our feet.  Then around 1:30, we glanced back to our west-north-west, and the sky looked black.  Dad said "don't we have to go that way".  Not being able to see the shore, we pulled up next to a charter boat and asked him for a heading to Coneaut Harbor. In a very startled voice, he said, "are you kidding?  Do you know where you are?"  Obviously not!  He said, "you are due north of Walnut creek!"  He gave us a heading, and dad immediately got out our hand held Boy Scout compass, lined up the heading and I put the hammer down on the 60hp evenrude.  We ran full throttle for about 45 minutes when we finally could see the light house on the horizon.  Then the waves got so big, about 4-5 feet, that I had to trim up the engine to keep the nose up, slowing us way down.  Water was still busting over the bow & sides like crazy.  Both bilge pumps going full blast, and Dad using the emergency bail bucket to keep the water below the floor.  By the time we made it into the harbor, we were fighting 6-7 footers, remember this is a 16ft bass boat.  While tying the boat down on the trailer, a heavy hail storm hit with heavy rain, thuder & lightening.  On our way home, we heard on the news about a sail boat that had tried to make the harbor about 3pm.  It had crashed on the rocks, killing two people. Believe you me, we spent a lot of time thanking God and counting our blessings.  This happened about 12 years ago, before portable GPS units, and although I've had my boat on Erie since then, I never go out more that 3-4 miles, always have a radio & gps.  Lesson learned!!!

Pymatuning for me too.....my father and I were out in a 15 ft Sea Nymph fishing machine with a 9.9 only.  Got caught out on the north end of the lake, almost didn't make it back.  No thunderstorm, actually it was even a little sunny that day, but the wind was HOWLING out of the northwest.  I am not sure how big the waves were, but they had me checking my shorts.......Three guys in a canoe went in the drink the same day, another fisherman in a tri hull managed to gather them in and brought them back to the launch where we were at.   Trying to get the boat out of the water, the waves actually threw the boat up onto the shore they were pounding so hard.   LOL we sold the Sea Nymph a couple months later, got a 19.5ft SmokerCraft with a 110 Johnson and a 9.9 kicker.  We ever get caught out there in conditions like that again, the PAFBC can fine my****all they want when I get to shore, I am dropping the 110 and getting off there.   Better to be alive and fined, than the alternative....