I guess we were all hoping for a little rain to get fish moving, but this is definitely more than I bargained for:
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(Taken from
www.komotv.com/weather):
"Another round of heavy rain is blowing through the area tonight. Not only will that make for some challenging driving for those traveling to Grandma's house regionally with plenty of standing water on the roads, but the rains might be heavy enough to cause flooding on some of our rivers.
A FLOOD WATCH has been expanded, both in geography and time. It's now in effect from 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday afternoon for all rivers that feed out of the Olympics (Although the Skokomish remains on Flood Warning) and also now for all rivers in the North and Central Cascades. That includes Skagit, Whatcom and King Counties (but strangely, not Snohomish). The watch includes the Skagit, Tolt, Snoqualmie, Nooksack, Satsop and Elwha.
Several inches of rain are expected to fall in the Olympics and North Cascades, potentially pushing some of the rivers over their banks.
Now, a Flood Watch means conditions are right for flooding, but are not a slam dunk. Flood Warnings (like on the Skokomish River) mean flooding is occurring or imminent.
The rain will still be around Saturday -- although it'll lighten up a bit toward afternoon. But the trade-off is that it'll also be somewhat windy -- especially north and along the coast, where southeast winds could gust to 40 mph (kind of like earlier this week.) In the Puget Sound area, we're thinking winds to 30 mph.
It will also be very warm again. Highs will be in the upper 50s -- with some spots in the low 60s! The record high is 55 and that's very much in jeopardy.
Another wave of rain comes through Christmas morning, with three more right on its heels for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Highs will stay in the very-mild 50s -- although perhaps a bit cooler Monday to around 50, but then warming back up again for Tuesday and Wednesday. It'll also be occasional breezy-to-windy as each storm blows through in about the same wind speeds mentioned above.
One more comes in Thursday morning, but this one might finally be cool enough to bring the snow levels down in the mountains to pass level or so and get some new snow. Friday's looking dry and cooler (highs only in the 40s!) but back to the rain for New Year's Weekend."
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Unless the results differ from the forecast significantly, it sounds as though we're going to be hard pressed to find much fishing water for at least another week or so (unless you're into fishing Tokul Creek)... It figures that the washout should coincide almost exactly with winter break. Looks like I'm not done tying jigs yet.
I guess it's a good thing I cashed in last Thursday and Friday, as it seems that may have been my only shot at fish until January. Frankly, though, I think I'll be on the water when the flow gets into "the zone" regardless of whether or not classes have begun. Nothing like a blowout to put some chrome native bucks into my favorite water.
Andrew
