# seiche wave!



## smokercraft15 (May 21, 2011)

i was reading the anchoring from the stern thread... which in my opinion if you do this you are a moron(no offense) but it is stupid and doesnt make you cool or a tuff guy it makes you stupid. but i digress. i experienced one of these seiche waves this may on erie. ive been perch fishing erie since i was 11 and im 48 now and this is the 1st seiche i ever seen. ihave a 16 ft aluminum really deep vee. i was lucky. i seen it coming on a flat lake. i was still freakin out when i seen it rolling in. it hit me on the port side of my boat. 5 to 6 foot wave outta nowhere. so my question is, how many of you erie guys have had the same experience? it happens when wind pushes water to a shore and when the wind dies it comes rushing back to the opposite shoreline. ive seen wind push water from sandusky while duck hunting on sandusky bay. and ended up picking up decoys in mud and the waters edge was 50 yds from shore. and it happens when the wind dies the water comes rushing back to the opposite shore. it happens when atmospheric pressure moves the water too.

3 teens were pulled from the water this same day. after it washed them out into the lake. it was a 7 ft wave by them. in 06 the marina in cleveland experienced this also. and in the 1950's in chicago it washed fisherman off the piers with a 15 ft wave 12 people drowned. so i am now curious to know how many erie fisherman have experienced this. so please tell any stories you have.

i have also learned the great lakes mariners have known about these for yrs. they call them the 3 sisters. it is and was for me 3 rogue waves. here is the link for the 3 teens washed away and google seiche to learn more.


http://www.wkyc.com/video/1668105962001/1/3-teenagers-pulled-in-Lake-Erie-by-rare-seiche-wave


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I have been on Erie for 65+ years and have seen this wave several times. I have often wondered "from where and how" but until now I never had an answer. Thanks for sharing your information.


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## FISHIN216 (Mar 18, 2009)

these kinds of stories are fascinating. one morning in june me, my dad and my brother witnessed a single wave about 3 feet high and as far as we could see north moving from west to east by vermilion on a flat glass lake. When it hit it packed a punch. underwater quake?

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## viper1 (Apr 13, 2004)

Sat at the d day reenactment at Conny a couple weeks ago and watched 3 or 4 of these. 3-5 ft tall moving west to east. Maybe 25-50 ft long. White topped. Just appeared and disappeared out of know where. No boats as far as you could see. Been hit by a few this year also. Seems more often then normal. Perch fishing one day on 6" or less got hit by a solid 6 footer. Put water on top of closed bow and almost over the side. Really shook us up. Slammed me on the gunnel about broke my back. Buddy ended up half over the side. Kind of scares you.l as Erie has had the big enough to sink military and commercial ships.

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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

anyone with much lake erie experience has seen many of these, we were hit with one last friday on the starboard side while trolling, made a 29 foot craft rock and roll. where do they come from, who knows, but if you fish erie, you know their coming.... i will say this, ive seen many more out east around geneva, bula, conny area than around the cleveland/rocky river/avon area. i wonder if the deeper water has anything to do with it.


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## ReelPower (May 18, 2009)

Saw a huge surge from low pressure t storm this July 3rd at Mentor Lagoon, currents over 12 knots ripping into and out of the harbor while the storm was still 2 miles or so offshore. Wild and dangerous. Must have been some impressive waves associated with it but I was (thankfully) viewing from shore.


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## Jason Pelz (Mar 6, 2012)

About 15 years ago I was going on an early morning fishing run, just myself and my dog. We left the dock at 5:30 am and it was still dark out. We were running through the Sandusky bay and it was flat as glass so I had it at WOT, which is usually the norm for me anyway, and standing up in betwwen the seats steering the boat with my right hand and fine tuning the radio station to 104.7 with my left hand. Had to love the old school radios. I got just short of the fog horn and out of nowhere we hit one of these waves and I never see it coming. My 19' boat flew out of the water and when we came crashing down into the second wave it nearly dead stopped my boat and slammed both of us off the windshield and onto the floor. By the time I was able to stand back up my boat was just about to hit the breakwall but luckily I was just able to steer it away just in time. I looked around for my dog and she was hidden under the back seat beside the motor box, shaking and pissing all over my boat. That dog used to spin circles if I told her we were going fishing but after that day she would run and hide when I asked her if she wanted to go fishing. I tried forcing her to walk down the dock with me one day, but she bit me in the process, so I never tried again after that. I lost my best fishing buddy that day. I thought maybe I had hit a freighter wake or something but never did locate another vessel anywhere in sight and couldn't explain what had happened. At least now I have some sort of an explanation.


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## Scooty Puff Jr. (Mar 26, 2008)

Had this happen about 3 weeks ago. Waves were 2 or less, me and my buddy were headed out of Ashtabula about 13 miles. I have a 19 ft Wellcraft. My buddy was rigging lines and I looked down at the GPS. I looked back up as the nose went down and was staring right at what I can only estimate to be a 7-10ft wall of water. It damn near drowned us. Had 2-3ft of water in the back of the boat. Thank god for a good bilge. Took the motor a good half an hour to recover. That was the 2nd most frightened I've ever been on that lake. What was even crazier was we were 5 miles out(ish) and didn't see much more than a ripple the rest of the day until the ride in when it got a little rough.


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## fishhogg (Apr 16, 2009)

I saw a special on this paticular occurence in May and they said it was caused by an offshore thunder storm, that had very high winds in the storm itself. This year has been very bad for small isolated thunderstorms that cause these type of waves.


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## LEfriend (Jun 14, 2009)

Last Sat,as I posted previously. Perching on east edge of pack at B can late morning. Beautiful day, calm seas, 1 foot chop, gentle breeze. Perfect conditions.

Standing in middle of my boat baiting hook when buddy screams "look out". Too late. First of three rogue waves. I was holding a skipper 9 rig. First wave jammed a hook into my thumb. Afraid to grab anything with my right hand, with hook in thumb and two more bare ones flapping around, I was too far to reach anything with my left. I survived the first wave. The second one slammed me flat on my back on the deck. The third one I was rolling all over the boat. Lucky I didn't break something.

Came out of nowhere. They were a good 4-5 feet and the tops rolling over like a snow avalanche down a mountain. They were just like a big spinning log! There was a straight vertical wall from crest to trough behind each, and they were so close together there was no recover time between each one. They had no white caps so it was hard to see them coming, even in pretty flat sea, and absolutely no time to grab a vest.

I have a 22 foot self-bailing boat with an 8 foot beam and deep hull. The run this boat offshore in the ocean on the coasts. Sides are high enough that I can't reach the water with my hand over the side when the boat is level. My buddy fishing on side they hit said we were 2 inches from taking the last 2 waves over the gunnel into the cockpit. Had we been anchored on that back corner, there is no doubt in my mind we would have filled the boat!

My bow was headed southeast into the lite breeze, but these things came 90 degrees to that from the southwest and hit broadside. We could see nothing for miles that could have caused them. The went under us like a rocket and when we finally stopped rolling we watched them heading off towards Canada and Pelee, not one bit diminished. We were all okay, but definitely a bit shaken.

Weird thing, they were not all that long. I don't think they hit the bigger pack.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)




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## boatnut (Nov 22, 2006)

Very interestng topic! more info on why can be found here-

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/rogue-wave.htm


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## ROOM2MOVE (Jan 28, 2008)

In 1995 I was 14 miles off of Rocky River fishing and on the way in at night full moon and with the lake flat it was like running on a mirror. I was WOT 40 miles an hour and i was shooting the bull with a buddy on the boat looking out occasionally, when looking up there was a 4' hump of water as far as i could see port to starboard. I couldnt power down fast enough, I quartered it and realized if i had not looked up my 23' center counsle would have gotten big air and we would probably of come out of the boat with no pfd's on.... I was still far off shore... Scared the crap out of me. I have not seen this occurance since.


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

Years back was out at night fishing off one of the old Coast reefs.
Wind was out of the east with just a little ripple.
My bud and me both looked out just in time to see giant wave coming at us _sideways_, from the north.
Dang thing was 8-10 foot easy.
Luckily, we got into the center of the boat and rode it OK, but it was spooky.

Now we always talk about the (say it with a thick Irish brogue)-
_*Rogue Wave!*_


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## FISHIN216 (Mar 18, 2009)

This also reminded me I was fishing the railroad bridge in sandusky bay and wind was about 15 mph coming at us from the west. We could see there was a storm north of us and the current was coming out of the south so we were on the north side of the bridge. All of a sudden the anchor broke free and we were heading towards the bridge pilings heading south fast. I ended up starting the boat just in time to get on the other side of the bridge. Well now the wind was coming from the south about 10-15 mph but man that current was coming through the bridge so fast our big pyramid sinkers wouldn't even keep us on the bottom...i never thought the bay could be so dangerous that far away from a storm...i have so much respect for erie

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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

Some serious stories there. This is great to know and now I think I will wear my off switch cord more often. 

I have not seen big rougue waves on erie in my 20 years or so on the lake. A couple years back I was out in front of cleveland lite house and it was the day after a strong NE wind. We had 4-5 foot rollers on what was otherwise a flat lake. There was about 30 feet between them so it was a slooow up and down for perch all day. Wasn't good fishing at the crib that day.

About 6 years ago while fishing Montauk point in late September, a hurricane 100s of miles to the east was sending rougue waves past us. We were fishing a 23' CC with a guide over 60 foot of water just north of Montauk point. All of a sudden a 15 foot wave rises about 50 feet from us on the edge of the reef. We heard it rising and it kind of stood still and got taller. The guide turned motor on and motored away from it fast. The wave came with 2 others right behind it. These sets of 3 waves came all day about every 45 minutes. Later that day we were closer to shore and another set of waves started to rise on us. This time its only 15 feet away. I'm standing in the bow and I'm looking up at least 7' above my head at the wave. It is starting to break and the captain turns on the motor and floors it. First parrallel to the wave then over the top. I hear him say hold on and as we go over the other side, I hold onto the rails, my legs go over my head then come crashing down on the deck knees first. We kept going out to sea to pass the other 2 waves. No long term damage but that was scary. There were 3 other boats that got caught on the wrong side of those waves that day and they rode them out all the way to the rocky shore. I think the boats were lost. Fishing for False Albies and blue fish were good that day. Striped bass were on fire the next day. 

No I never anchor at the stern.


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## smokercraft15 (May 21, 2011)

great stories guys. thanks for all of them. i guess these waves happen more than we all know. i have read these can happen on inland bodies of water too. i read erie is more prone to these cause its relatively a shallow lake. i also read they happen alot more than we think and are really more noticeable on the calmer days. which was my case a dead calm. until i read the anchoring from stern thread and another guy posted his experience with these waves i had thought it was a rare crazy thing that just happened to me. but now i see i am not alone with the seiche wave trauma lol.


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## smokercraft15 (May 21, 2011)

this is very imformative



http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/seiches.htm


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## 74chrysler (Apr 9, 2008)

Thanks for the article smokercraft, pretty neat stuff!


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## eyecatchum2 (Mar 30, 2010)

Six or eight years ago while fishing the Grand river in the fall from a 16' boat there was a big storm over the lake, we were heading back to Rutherford's landing to leave from the pipe bridge and were hit by a 2' wall of water racing up river from the storm. Glad we were not in a smaller boat like you sometimes see on the river.
Another time out on Erie the lake was flat and we had a 2-3' wave hit out of no where, my Dad said I wonder if there was an Earthquake, we got home and there had been an Earthquake I believe off Ashtabula.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I have run into this several times on the Ohio River, be running on semi glass and all of a sudden a 3-4 ft roller wave will scare the jezzus out of you when you launch over them, not a boat for miles. Not sure if the wind or anything like a storm causes them but over the years Ive hit several of them and wonder where they come from, any other Ohio River guys hit by one of them? 

Salmonid


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## CarpCommander (Jun 20, 2007)

I saw this just the other week. A few hundred yards off Marblehead, wind had just switched from a W to a N direction, and waves were building to 2-3ft rollers. As I motored up and turned to leave, I noticed a single wave about 50yds long travelng PERPENDICULAR to the Northerly waves. Absolutely nuts. This one particular wave was only about 2ft tall but didnt lose any steam at all! I watched it head towards Cedar Point until it was outta view. 

Over the last few years Ive seen several, none of them very big, but they often take their own path and dont lose any power regardless of direction. 

Scary stuff...


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## eyeangler1 (May 21, 2004)

Since this isn't a "Lake Erie fishing report"... doesn't it belong in "The Lounge" forum?


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

I'm glad its here!!! Good info on Lake Erie and may help keep some life-jackets on or near.


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## Searay (Feb 12, 2007)

I have seen these waves over the years nothing very large but while out there fishing we get hit with a wave and all say aboard where did that come from did anybody see a large boat go by... this sure is an eye opener topic thanks for bringing this up!


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## Kershmon (Sep 14, 2007)

I was perching just north of 72nd lighthouse by myself a few years back calm as glass, out of the northeast came one huge wave must have been 8-10 feet slow roller. I could see it coming from a distance so I was able to brace myself. Luckily it was a slow roller no white cap held on for the roller coaster ride and was calm the rest of the day good thing I was anchored from the bow or I would have been swamped for sure. 






























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## joeyzg60 (Apr 29, 2011)

June 2nd 2011. Seiche hit while docking boat at rev brook boat club. Sent two feet of water into marina covering docks by over two feet. Then in seconds water pulled out sweeping as docking the boat sweeping it out to the the lake. Almost hitting rocks and boats along the way By time gained control chartplotter said 10 mph in marina

Never been more scared, marina's are supposed to be safe. Was told not normal. Next day same thing happened. 
Boat now at kister in bula. No more problems with rising water. 


Scary stuff the waves. 

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