Sunday, January 19, 2014 Jenner, CA.
Big fish come into the river even with the mouth closed
My friend Marty was coming by to go for a yak today. He’s recovering from some medical problems, so we had to take it easy. The weather guy said the wind would be down at Jenner, so we decided to go down there to yak for the day.
We arrived about noon and put our boats in the water, The sun was out, with a light breeze. You could hear and see that the ocean was real rough, as it was breaking over the sand at the river’s mouth area.
A big Mistake
Which way to go, up river or down. Looking down river towards the mouth, you could see big waves breaking over the closed sand bar, but I said we’d come back to it later. A big mistake, I found out later.
We crossed over the river and sat for a bit on the north side of Penny Island before going into the little channel of the east end of Penny Island, where we took a lengthy break in our boats, before heading on up the river to Otter’s log.
Marty headed for Otter’s log.
We stopped at Otter’s log for a bit, then headed on up to Eagle’s landing. This is the view at Eagle’s landing, where we turned around and started back down the river.
We put ashore at Penny Island for a little walk
We were headed for Penny Island where we put ashore for a bit.
This is the east end of Penny Island where we put ashore.
This is where we went ashore on Penny Island for a bit.
We walked around on the part of the island that I call the tourist part. This is our view as we approached the old milk barn.
We looked around on Penny Island for a bit, then had lunch and a break in the grass before loading back up and heading down to the closed River’s mouth.
This is the view as we approached the mouth area. Lots of seagulls and you could hear the ocean waves pounding on the beach and see them too.
It was after high tide now, going to low tide, so the waves were big, but not breaking over the sand very often at this point, but they were earlier.
One more view of the rough ocean waves where the river’s mouth is usually at by the end of the jetty, which is where the person of the left is standing.
We stayed down there just long enough to get some picture then headed in for the day. This is our view of Jenner as we went in for the day.
I took a picture of the gauge at the visitors center. Just under six feet. The mouth is usually opened after it hits seven feet by the excavator guys. It’s still going to be a couple or more days before it gets to that.
This is the last picture of the day, looking west, of course from the boat ramp.
Krag had some interesting news about big fish coming in the river today
We pulled our boats in and I went over to get my car when I ran into Krag, who sometimes works for Suki, the boat rental lady down at Jenner and this is what he told me, which I found very interesting because I’ve been wondering about this very thing.
It appears that Suki was down by the river’s mouth just as we put our boats in today with a group of kayakers when she saw lots of big fish coming over the closed sand bar at the river’s mouth area in the big waves caused by the rough ocean. It was a 5.1 foot high tide about noon today. Lots of seals and sea lions eating big fish on the sand as the waves broke over and bring big fish into the river.
I’d been wondering if big fish did come over the closed mouth during high tides and a rough ocean and now I had my answer. They certainly do.
So, even though the river’s mouth is closed lots of big fish were reported coming into the river around noon today by a reliable source.
That was good info, so I learned something.
We put the boats on the car and went on home for the day.
Nice day kayaking Jenner, but I wished I’d gone down to the mouth first thing instead of up the river, but that’s the way it goes.
