CatchWindow fishing intelligence

Cape Disappointment, WA Daily Water Report — August 27, 2026

Today is a mixed bag at Cape Disappointment, but there are clear winners if you time it right. For most powered vessels and divers, conditions are excellent; for anglers and paddlers, the afternoon holds the key. The big story is the dying breeze. Representative northwest wind sits at a mere 3 knots, and while a gusty 22-knot spike is possible around 7 a.m., the trend is toward calm through the rest of the morning and into the evening. This makes boating the standout activity at 8.2/10, a strong improvement over yesterday’s 7.1 and a welcome recovery from last week’s 4.8. Diving matches at 8/10, with light surface chop, warmish 15.7°C water, and that stable 1019 hPa barometer pressing upward. Surfing (7.5/10) and kayaking (7.5/10) also look good, though with different caveats. The 1-meter swell at 7.8 seconds is rideable but sleepy — a 266-degree direction suggests a long-period groundswell with no real punch — so this is a longboard or foamie morning, not a step-up day. Kayakers will find the 0.4 m/s alongshore current manageable, but the calmest water won’t arrive until near 10 p.m., well after sunset at 8:08. Fishing scores a so-so 6.7/10, down from yesterday’s 8.2. The solunar major at 11:41 a.m. offers a brief window, but the lack of tide data and rising pressure suggest fish may be less active through the midday lull. Chlorophyll reads high at 3.71 mg/m³ — a baitfish signal if you’re reading the water — but the scoring methodology weighs pressure and timing more heavily, and it’s telling you midday may be tough. Wildlife watching (7.2/10) is decent, especially near the minor solunar period at 6:11 a.m., though the bright 98% moon means nocturnal activity will fade fast at dawn. Compared to recent history, today’s calm is the big shift. Last week’s 13.6-knot blow (August 22) hammered kayaking to 3.5 and boating to 4.8; now both have flipped. The trade-off is that sailing (5.6/10) has no wind to work with — a far cry from last Thursday’s 9.2 — so leave the spinnaker at home. Looking ahead, Thursday holds similar calm with waves dropping to 0.8-1.0 meters and just 8.2-knot winds. Friday brings a 47% chance of rain and slightly stronger breeze, but the real shift arrives September 2, when NW winds ramp to 27 knots and waves climb to 2.4 meters. That will reshuffle the deck entirely. Your best bet today is a late-morning powerboat run while the sea is glassy, the pressure is rising, and the water is unseasonably warm.