Ryan Bradetich and Howard Harding fish for trout on on Black Lake on a calm winter day.

The bad news? There’s sure been a lot of rain. The good news? There’s sure been a lot of rain.

Sure, we all get tired of the drenching waves of rain from an endless series of midwinter North Pacific storms. It sometimes has lashed down these past couple weeks, delivered by winds that shake enormous hemlocks, spruce and firs like a terrier shaking a rat.

On the other hand, all that pure water recharges all the living things on this wild coast, percolating into the soil to quench our thirst throughout the year. Everything we see and touch is clean. The water is fresh and new. The air is sweet. The light itself comes to us as if directly from its creator, and we get to see our world at its best.

Photographers and fishermen alike have been savoring these conditions at Black Lake in Ilwaco.