Westport Jetty - Before & After

Got to love spring time in the Harbor! Maybe not the best time to go skipping along the jetty but I was desperate to break my 4+ month streak without casting a line. But before sharing my excuses for coming home empty handed, some black and white photos:
As with all projects aimed at controlling the ocean, the Westport Jetty's tale is full of unintended consequences and frustrations. Apparently when the Westport Jetty was first completed in 1902, cameras had not made it to the West Coast. Even this illustration is pilfered from the construction of the Columbia River jetties in 1913. Below is the cliff notes version of the trials and tribulations, probably only interesting to this infrastructure nerd so no offense taken if you just want to skip to the pictures:
  • 1896 - River and Harbor Act authorized a 18,150' jetty on the southern side of Grays Harbor's outlet to help scour out a decent shipping channel.
  • 1902 - The scouring was so efficient that it began undermining the jetty during construction and the project ran out of money, 13,730' is deemed far enough!
  • 1904-1906 - Scouring continues to eat at the jetty and it begins to settle under the waves.
  • 1907 - A north jetty (Ocean Shores side) is approved to help protect the Westport Jetty.
  • 1910 - The North Jetty is completed at 10,000' which apparently wasn't quite far enough because in the same year funding is approved to extend it another 7,000' and construction begins...
  • 1917 - Jetties are supplemented by dredging the channel yearly
  • 1933 - The Westport Jetty is on average 5-10' below low tide
  • 1935 - Time to rebuild both jetties
  • 1942 - Construction on both jetties is completed. Repeat the cycle every 25-35 years.
  • 1993 - A new twist! The ocean washes out the backside of the Westport Jetty. Oh to be a fly on the wall for one of these Army Corp of Engineer meetings...
  • 2018 - The jetties still settle in particularly rough storms and only about 7,000' of the Westport Jetty still reaches above the waves, further motivation for me to get out there while I still can. The dredging is also an annual $9 million event but since its keeping the way clear for our feedstock vessels, I say carry on the good fight little dredge boat!
Ok, back to the present and my promised excuses - It was raining, then it was hailing, then it was raining and the whole time the wind was pushing the waves over the top of the jetty. Which all would have been fine if I knew what I was doing... One mistake I am not likely to make again is using frozen herring as jetty bait, they lack the structural integrity of their plastic clones and I think the rockfish and lingcod were just waiting for them to fall off rather than risk a hooking.
P.S. My fishing hiatus was not due to a medical condition this time, well at least not a physical one. I found a sand volleyball crew that plays every Sunday, straight through the winter. It takes a couple hours for my toes to thaw but there is no competition for net space and you can't beat having the Olympics as a backdrop.