CatchWindow fishing intelligence

Crescent City, CA Daily Water Report — September 5, 2026

Crescent City’s water is in a cooperative mood today: boating leads at 8 out of 10, surfing is right behind at 7.9, and fishing and kayaking hold a solid 7.5 and 7.4. Sailing is the odd one out at 5.6, starved for breeze rather than beaten up by weather. Diving is not scored. None of those numbers is a safety stamp; they are suitability scores from the usual mix of wind, waves, pressure, solunar timing, and the rest of each activity’s own recipe. Open-Meteo’s current and forecast picture is quiet and dry. Representative wind is only 2 knots from the west, with a day range of 0.7 to 8.7 knots and the sharpest gust, 15.4 knots, timed near 15:00. Cloud cover sits around 8 percent, precipitation is nil, and pressure is steady near 1016 hPa. Air runs 9.8 to 17.5 C, a cool 12.6 C as a representative reading, with atmospheric visibility of 12.3 km—air clarity, not a window into the water. Marine forecast seas are 1.3 to 1.8 meters, about 1.32 meters at 9.9 seconds in the representative snapshot, riding a 1.12-meter swell at 6.6 seconds from 304 degrees and almost no wind sea. A 0.4 m/s current sets toward 297 degrees, and marine SST is 13 C. The calmest waves, meaning the day’s minimum height, arrive near 23:00 at 1.3 meters. The best stretch for fishing is the morning solunar major from 07:25 to 09:25, with a second window 19:25 to 21:25 after sunset at 19:47. Light west wind and that northwest swell keep surfing honest without turning it messy; the same light air and dry deck lift boating and kayaking, though the sea is still a working 1-plus meters, not a pond. Sailors pay for the hush. Afternoon gusts are the main tradeoff if you linger through midafternoon. Wildlife sits at 6.7. Against CatchWindow’s recent reconstructed days, this is a step up for small craft: kayaking was 6.2 yesterday and as low as 2.6 on the 2nd when winds were stronger, and boating has climbed from 7.1 yesterday and the mid-4s earlier in the week. Fishing eased a notch from yesterday’s 8.1. Surfing is unchanged at 7.9. Looking ahead, Sunday stays cool with a 6.4-knot peak and waves easing to 1.0–1.3 meters, then air warms hard through midweek under light winds before seas build toward 1.5–2.3 meters by the 11th. Best bet: launch before that 15:00 gust and let the northwest swell do the talking while the wind is still whispering.