You are sorely missed, often thought of and well loved. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and lets have a Happy New Year together.
Great post and my thoughts and feelings are the same as yours, nighthawk…
Thanks for posting this
My thoughts as well Eric. Flybinder, I hope you are on dry ground after all the rain and snow.
Rocky
I talked with Paul (flybinder) last week right after Christmas. Sounded like the snow, rain, flooding and influx of seagulls pooping all about his house, and cars, has given him a raging case of cabin fever. He NEEDS to go fishing for sure.
Jeff
(Flybinder, jumps up and down on one foot to clear seawater and seaweed from left ear…)
Hello,All!
Thank you, very much Eric, for your post and as always, your concern for your friends on the BB!
Like The Preacher stated, we’ve been putting up with more than our own fair share of rain, wind, snow, (snow at the BEACH?), lots more rain and even more wind.
In fact, tonight, we’re expecting “round #2” of the latest weather for the area.
“Winds in excess of 75mph and rain, anywhere from 3” to 7" is expected after 10pm tonight, lasting until around 8am Friday morning.
“Saddle Mountain” is one of the highest peaks in the Coast Range Mountains that separates us from the “Inland Valley” of Portland, etc. When it began raining, a day ago, Saddle Mtn. had an excess of 4’ of snow at its peak. In 6 hours, it recieved over 6" of rain at the peak and a temp warm up of around 42 degrees.
Needless to say, the resulting snow melt and included rain, has sent all our coastal rivers well over their flood stage and banks.
One would have to be on an equal par of “Fly Fishing Masters”, such as Eric, Jeff, JC and a few others, I know of, to even attempt a cast in our water ways at this point!
"Laying down, a #22 Spinner, against the flood waters and the 70+mph winds, would certainly take the talents of any of those I’ve mentioned above.
So, not securing that much talent MYSELF, I’m going to stay home, tie a few “Dog Hair Killers” and wait!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!
Paul,
Recently we needed one of these: …http://www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/cvito/uploaded_images/snowplow-706743.jpg
Now, we might need one of these: …http://startswithabang.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/ark1.gif
Doug
Paul -
Great to see you posting to start the year. Be sure to hang around and chime in regularly, PLEASE ??!!
Good luck with the weather coming at you all. Don’t worry about sending it our way, we’ll just hunker down til it blows over and then get back at it.
All the best to you and Linda in the New Year.
John
Thank you ‘Saint Paul.’ Hang on tight out there. Remember, your weather today is my weather tomorrow. Oh, by the way, “quit sending this crap!!!” 
My deepest and MOST sincere pleasure, to be of help to you Lord JC! Anytime, I can be of help to anyone, I try my best!
If “MY weather, is YOUR weather, tomorrow”, by what’s going on outside at the moment… how good are you are locating pairs of animals and building VERY LARGE boats?
Just before dark, I was sitting in my home office, here at the house and fishing for Steelies out the window.
I didn’t have any luck, sad to say, but it was nice to be able to fish the Necanicum River, (which in normal flows is about 7 miles from my house and usually not flowing so near the edge of my 2nd. story office window), without having to go outside.
Hang in there, Lord JC. “Storm #3” is only 150 miles off shore!
Northwest Onslaught Continues!!! 
Lead Meteorologist, The Weather Channel
Jan. 1,2 009 6:50 pm ET
The Pacific Northwest continues to be plagued by a series of storms. Another energetic system will arrive during the overnight hours.
High wind warnings and wind advisories have been issued for southwest Washington, much of Oregon and parts of western Idaho into early Friday. The beach and coastal mountains will experience (wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph) Hold On To Yer Hat Paul!. Valley areas between the coastal range and the Cascades will see wind gusts up to 50 mph. The Cascades and areas to the lee side of the mountains could deal with gusts to 75 mph. The lower Snake River Valley in Idaho will have southerly wind gusts to 60 mph. Off the east slopes of the Rockies, wind gusts in parts of Wyoming will again peak near 75 mph at times Friday.
Heavy rain continues across parts of southwest Washington and western Oregon,(If Anyone Needs Any Water, We Will Be Glad To Send You Some!) where flood watches have been posted. Rainfall totals in the coastal range just south of the mouth of the Columbia River and the lower elevations of western Cascades just south of the Columbia Gorge reach between 3 and 8 inches by Friday with over 1 inch in Seattle, Wash., and 2 or more inches in Portland, Ore.
Heavy snow will once again bury the Washington Cascades, with snow levels rising to between 3500 and 5500 feet early, and then falling to 1000 feet Friday. Total accumulations of 1 to 2 feet (locally more) are in the forecast.
Over the Oregon Cascades the heaviest snow will be confined to elevations above 6000 feet where over a foot of snow could fall. Snow levels will rapidly fall Friday.
A combination of heavy snow, changing temperatures and snow levels, along with strong gusty winds will bring a threat for avalanches; avalanche warnings have been posted for parts of the area.
Doug
Thanks for the post Eric, waking up Paul can be a chore at times but seems to have done the trick in this case.
Happy New Year to all those others missing in action we have not heard from in a while. Lets hear from you.
Paul, its good to see your at least kicking one leg even if its only to jump start the cerebellum and re-arrange the smouldering sawdust within.
As for the weather STOP already! You guys are letting too much get through. Your weather is our weather +24 hours and 7 minutes later. This is the desert for petes sake. I have a foot of snow on my house and the gazebo is crushed to the ground. It has snowed more here this winter than it has in the last 20 years combined. We have no snowplows for the side streets, some folks no longer even owned snow shovels when this white stuff first started. Oh sure the old timers had told of it in their stories around the campfires but we never really believed them. Even Canadian tire ran out of snow shovels and had to send a hurry up call Out East where snow lives for more shovels.
When all this stuff melts there is going to be Hell to pay downstream. Luckily I live upstream more by luck than design.
Happy new year everyone.
It’s 54 and sunny here. There’s a little too much wind for good casting, but that’s life. I am, of course, sitting in a cube.
Ed
<off in the distance Castwell harrumphs… "I’ve seen him cast. A butterfily’s sneeze is too much wind for HIS “good casting”.>
Gnu Bee, this will not please you…it’s 42 here in Roseberg, OR and pouring…with snow in the mix…and I’m at about 425 ft. elev.
Just thought I should let you know. Sure am glad I went to the lake the last day of last year !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Temps and wind gusts here both in the high 30s !!
Thought maybe I would get out today, but that idea pretty much got blown away.
John
P.S. George - how did you do on the lake ??
…from a ‘getting out there and practicing my cast’ perspective, I did really well. I kept imagining I was seeing bass or crappie following my leech pattern in the green tea stained water, but I think that was wishful thinking.
I was surprised to have the whole place to myself for several of the hours I was there. On an aside, I did have the happy pleasure of witnessing some interesting folks pile out of several vehicles, rig up and begin fishing from both piers, plainly marked ‘Do not fish from the pier’. Some of them became very excited when a flight? flock? of honkers cupped and landed in the soaked grasses near them to worm and grub. The interesting folks seemed to be afraid of the honkers and would walk way around to get to the two piers.
I took a few pics of the lake and if you’d like, I could post them in another thread, not wishing to clutter this one up with pictures of completely flat, pine and fir surrounded waters.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Well, now, GnuBee my friend… Latest weather that will reach you in 24 hours and 7 minutes… "Sunday-Jan.4th: “High winds expected, gusts to 65-70mph, 2-3inches of rain expected to come in along with latest winds”.(end quote, Nat.Weather Service and US Coast Guard reports).
Consider yourself lucky, that we here at the BEACH (and YOU complain about “snow in the desert”?), are kind and thoughtful enough, to FIRST, send our “used weather” up and over JC’s locale, before sending the remnants on to your neck of the globe!
It’s becoming more more difficult to roll cast even Steelhead Bombers, more than a few inches, in these ever present 60+ mph winds. A few old timers are resorting to using wrist rockets to get their flies out on the water.
Fortunately, since the rains also have produced mass flooding in many areas, one need only drop a line out the window, to successfully fish our local streams!
Paul,
I can hardly believe it didn’t snow, rain, blow or anything today (Saturday), but there is always today and next week, for more moisture. I found a handy idea for the next time you lose power: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/864/a-prius-can-power-your-home-in-a-snowstorm.html
Doug:idea: