Im looking to take my 20 aluminum boat out of sunday for a troll. I check the national weather site and they predict 2-4 foot waves, me being new to lake erie don't know if it would be safe to go out in these conditions.
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Im looking to take my 20 aluminum boat out of sunday for a troll. I check the national weather site and they predict 2-4 foot waves, me being new to lake erie don't know if it would be safe to go out in these conditions.
They are calling for small craft warnings till 10 pm sunday. I'll be watching the weather also as the wife and I were planning on heading out sunday also. They were wrong yesterday..2 to 4's laying down to 1 to 3's. Which was on the very low side as we had quite a few much higher than that and stacked real tight. Second time in 11yrs with the boat I have now I had a wave come over the side of the boat. Only plus was we did get our limits quickly yesterday. Alot depends on where you launch, plan to fish and wind direction.
According to NWS the winds are supposed to be W to SW....which is a better scenario than N or NE. What I think is safe probably is not what you would consider safe, so it makes it rather difficult to answer your question. To me, I'd take a 20' aluminum out in 2-4's and not worry about it, but I've been running boats for as long as I can remember. The other thing you don't know is how accurate the forecast will be. We've all seen them call for this or that and sometimes they are right and sometimes they aren't. To me, looking at the forecast and the wind direction, I think it will be fishable Sunday. Good Luck!
Greg
If it were me making the long drive I would stay home. I find this site to be more reliable than NOAA.
http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwher...hs®ionID=95
Take into consideration the weather bouy located just north of Vermillion on the Canadian line. It gives actual wave height, however everyone's rule of thumb is to take whatever it says and multiply by 1.5 to 2.0. So 4 footers are more like actual 6 to 8 footers.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=45005
With the heavy winds Friday afternoon, all day Sat., and still blowing in the mid 20's on Sunday (gusts 30 to 40) I highly doubt there will be many if any on the lake Sunday. I think 4 footers would be way under estimated.
However, last Sunday afternoon wind was supposed to be 8 to 12 mph max with 2 feet or less and we finished up arount 3:00 in easy 4 footers and building.
I'd like to get out Sunday as well as a friend from Midland, Mich will be driving down! I was out last sunday it sucked big time!!! I have a 22' center console but the hull is shallow! I have to pick and choose my days!
Doesn't look good boys!:(
.SATURDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS TO 30 KNOTS. SHOWERS LIKELY. WAVES
7 TO 10 FEET.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...SOUTHWEST WINDS TO 30 KNOTS DIMINISHING TO
15 TO 25 KNOTS. SHOWERS LIKELY. WAVES 7 TO 10 FEET SUBSIDING TO
4 TO 6 FEET.
.SUNDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING WEST. A CHANCE
OF SHOWERS. WAVES 4 TO 6 FEET SUBSIDING TO 3 TO 5 FEET.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...WEST WINDS 10 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHWEST.
WAVES 2 TO 4 FEET.
A couple of years ago we were fishing out on cone reef when the wind started and we paid no attention to it, come on one more fish, all the while mother ERIE was getting ugly, time to get the hell out of here I said, come on one more they kept saying, Finally I said reel in I'm out of here, went to fire up and we were 2 cylinders down, just (F)in great so I had to run with the waves then against them because I couldn't get the bow up and didn't want to take a 6FTER over the bow finally I could see the red light to turtle creek, coming into the break walls we came off at least a 6 maybe a 7 footer and there was no water in between the swells an bottomed out the boat then bent prop the boat hit so hard I bent the wheel everything flew everywhere including the guys, scared the **** right out of me, limped her in to lamberjacks tied her off got off the boat and kissed the ground!!! NEVER AGAIN . There will be better days to come! Life is short walleye season is all year long. Be safe, tight lines to all PAP.:eek:
Just wanted to thank everyone for their knowledge and their experiences. Ill be staying in on sunday and enjoying a nice cup of hot coffee and maybe give it a try next Monday .
Just a note: Like Pap mentioned, ALWAYS fire up the the big engine as soon as it starts to look bad and just let it idle till your ready to head in. I've been out where it came up so fast i had to just hit it in gear and pull everything so I could get the boat under control while we rushed to get everything in. When ever in doubt, I fire it up and know it's ready. I've heard to many stories where guys waited, found out they didn't have enough juice to get it started and then really had problems. I don't have a problem letting the engine idle for a bit. Comfort really. Those extra few minutes can really make a difference if you do have a problem.
I think you are smart. It was blowing like heck when I was up to check my boat today. Water was back up this morning from overnight, and then started back down in early afternoon...would say it dropped a foot to foot and a half in short time in mid afternoon. Most of the boats at Turtle creek were fine..was one down the way from me with its nose grinding on the rocks. We didn't know the guy so another guy and I debated...then moved it back on the dock for him and tied it to stay back off the rocks. Hope he was good with that.
On the other hand, when I got there this morning, there were six empty trailers in the lot at the Turtle Creek ramp. Someone either has a lot of guts and a big boat...or your avg boat and small brain. I think I know which it was. Wouldn't have caught me out there....
it's always a great gesture to help another mariner protect his property! kudos to you and the other guy......good luckQuote:
Originally Posted by LEfriend
LEfriend, I wouldn't mind one bit if you saved my boat from grinding on the rocks, I would thank you for that not many people would take that on.
So how was it out there boys??? Any pics they still called for 3-5's!!!:(