Too Damn Rough

[Jon]

I also check the two weather stations (SBI01 and 45005) before I go out and canceled Friday's trip before we left home. Over many years I've noticed a couple things and wonder if anyone agrees. Since 45005 is a bouy and at water level, I trust its wind readings, but wish it was a little closer to the islands and reefs. I do not always trust its wave height readings, but wind speed and direction pretty much tell you what the waves will be. On the other hand SBI01 is on land and elevated. It seems that its wind readings are often on the high side. The exception being NE winds during which SBI01 always seems low. For instance, on Friday (May 17) SBI01's sustained wind speeds were almost all from 11 to 13 mph while Vermillion was in the upper teens and Toledo Light house (THL01) was in the 20s. From what people are saying about the waves, it sounds SBI01 was low. I think that's because SBI01 is on the SW corner of South Bass Island and gets some protection from the island itself when there are NE winds. Anyone else noticed the same?

[wetnet1]

We left out of Catawba state park at 6:00 am Friday morning and it was 2-3 footers. By the time we made it to west side of Green Island it was at least 3-5 footers. The waves were flipping my boards upside down. We broke down and went to bass Island and ran up and down the shore pulling meat on inline boards and pulled 10 nice fish. We had a good time almost punched both our tickets and fished in 1 footers the whole time. 2 oz inlines with harness 40 back. Literally 200 yards off shore out of those east winds. I know there was an occasional 6 or 7 footer on the way back in yesterday.

[Dr.Ed]

When it comes to wave heights off Buoy 45005, I use the 2X factor. The number you get will be closer to the truth. It's weight and inertia will not let it float on top of the waves.

[stubby]

When it comes to wave heights off Buoy 45005, I use the 2X factor. The number you get will be closer to the truth. It's weight and inertia will not let it float on top of the waves.

good post!....

[B can man]

Checked two weather sites and wind/wave forecasts before I left the house at 7am. Was telling me east winds at 13mph and waves 2ft or less, subsiding to 1ft or less. Hauled the boat up to the Mazurik and got bait along the way. Sunny and beautiful on the way up, but as I sat at the ramp, I went "holy crap" I was looking at 3-4ft'ers easy. There were six others sitting the prep lane waiting for the waves to come down. Some broke out lawn chairs. Saw a few bigger boats and one or two smaller ones go out. Their boats were up and down so much that you could pretty much lose sight of them when they were in the troughs and that was from an elevated position!

The wind slowed down and the lake started to flatten out. I almost took the tie-downs off, but decided to turn on the NOAA VHF station. I heard "Waves 2-4ft increasing to 3-5ft" and something about a "stalled front bi-secting Ohio". Looked at my fishing partners and said "we're going home". $40 for gas in the truck, $12 for shiners/worms, 0 hours on the lake. GG lake, you beat the weathermen/observers to a pulp this time.

[imrsmk]

For wave heights I figure 1 foot wave/ every 5 knots (assuming nothing blocking the wind). So, when I hear 15 knot winds, the waves will be around 3 feet.

I never rely on forecasted wave height. iWindsurf and the bouys are usually pretty close on wind speeds, so just do the math yourself. You will save yourself a lot of trouble.

Obviously, with S winds the waves will be less in closer to shore.

John

[ken]

That sounds like a very good way to look at it. 1 foot wave per 5 knots of wind. I like it. Thanks for sharing this.

[Lyman1]

Good point, imrsmk. Makes sense. I like the docs explanation too but wouldn't the buoys be calibrated to take into account any discrepancy in being able to not rise to the actual wave height? Great site BTW, you guys are very nice to put your experiences on the lake into writing here, Thanks!