Tuesday January 6, 2015 Monte Rio CA.
Today, the county guys were coming to inspect my new well site around two PM, so I had to stay home. I planned to go do some shopping after in the Santa Rosa shopping areas.
Glove box back in the car
I started out putting my glove box back in my car that I had removed to find out why my heater fan didn’t work. After that, I did some little chores in the yard while I waited for the county guys to show up. I was out by my main gate using a broom to sweep up all the redwood litter from the last storm when the county guys showed up an hour early.
The county guys
I was a a bit concerned about what the county guys were going to want to know, but they only wanted to check my measurements about how far I was away from all the septic tanks in the area. The new well site is plenty far enough away from all septic tanks in the neighborhood, so things went well.
No shopping for me
So, I was planning to go do some shopping, but I just couldn’t get into that and since the county guys were early, I had time to go down to the river for an afternoon paddle. Shopping just isn’t one of my favorite things to do and as I get older, I’m not liking to do it even more.
Monte Rio for a paddle
I decided to go to Monte Rio and head on down to the Sheridan ranch beach, a couple miles down the river.
I put in my boat at the ramp.
These mallard ducks were at the ramp to greet me as I put my boat in the water.
Steelhead fishing
There were six boats in the slot today. I had to get by them without running into and under them, so I took the right side. The current picks up good right where they are anchored so one has to be careful of not running under their boats.
I stopped to talk with them a bit. They were having some luck catching steelhead. Three of the six boats had steelhead.
Jeff the biologist guy
Just below them I was paddling along here, when Jeff, one of the biologists that collects data from gages in the river was coming up the river. He stopped when he got to me and we shot the bull for a bit. It seems the fishermen were getting more steelhead than the biologists were seeing. I assured him that the steelhead were coming up the river and continued on down to the Sheridan beach.
I passed by this golden eye duck. A female or a juvenile?
Andrew changes my plans
I hung around the Sheridan beach area for awhile and had just started to go back up the river when Andrew came down the river to go fishing just above Moscow hole which was down the rive a bit. 
I decided to turn around again and follow him down there, which I did. We shot the bull all the way down there.
He stopped just above Moscow hole and I continued on down checking for fish in the shallows just above Moscow hole.
I passed this pair of merganser ducks on the way down.
Moscow hole
I didn’t see any fish on the way down and turned around here at Moscow hole also known as the Rein’s beach area.
As I was paddling back up in the shallows, I spotted some big fish wakes in the water in this spot, just to the right of the egret. The big fish tend to hang out in the shallows here to avoid the seals.
This great egret was fishing along the bank as I continued on up the river back to were Andrew was fishing.
I pulled in here for a break, just below where Andrew was fishing without success.
I let Andrew know I saw some fish wakes in the shallows below him. He headed down that way and I continued on up the river as it was getting late.
The sun was headed down as I came back up to the Sheridan Beach here.
I worked my way up the river taking my time. I made it up to Monte Rio just before five PM.
The lights were on on the bridge there, but it was still light enough to see.
There were a couple fishermen taking their boat out of the water at the ramp so I shot the bull with them for a bit while I was waiting for them to clear the ramp. Seems they did ok today fishing for steelhead. They said they had some fish, but forgot exactly what they said. That’s how shooting the bull goes.
I pulled my boat out and went on home for another nice day on the river.