Going out in the fog to check for lumens, phyto plankton.
I got up a little late today. Sure is nice not using an alarm clock. I decided it was a day to get my rebuilt carburetor installed on my old van, which wasn’t a big job, but thinking about articles for this blog keep me busy sitting around thinking, but around two PM, I finally got it into gear and got the carburetor put on the van, but decided to wait to test it out. I had a mission to do. My plan was to mess around the house most of the day and go down to Jenner around five or so and go up river to Marcum hole to see if there were any lumens out tonight. The tide was fairly early, around six forty-five PM, 5.6 ft. Sunset was just after seven PM.
I got to Jenner around four thirty in the afternoon. When I got there, the fog was trying to come in, wind was just blowing a little. First I went over to talk to a guy at one of the local rentals to see if they had seen any lumens the last couple nights as I knew they had people out the last couple nights, and I wasn’t out there during those times. The guy I wanted to talk to wasn’t there. I was able to get the guy who was there to tell me they had seen lumens out there before we got in a big argument about how the water works out there. I tried to calm the guy down, but he went ballistic on me. Once someone goes ballistic, you might as well give up, so I went back across the street and put my kayak in the water, into the fog.
Heading up the river to Marcum hole in the fog.
I crossed over to the island, and paddled up to Eagles Landing and up under the highway 1 bridge. The fog was about sixty feet high, not too bad, but I was a little concerned it might come down at dark and be a white out. I was determined not to let that stop me though.
Went by this big fat ol seal in the area of where the seals hang out on the logs, just below the Marcum hole.
This is Marcum hole, also known as Sheep Head Creek hole. It’s big hole about a hundred yards wide and about fifty feet deep. I think it is the deepest hole in the river. During the winter, when the water gets high, It’s a big whirlpool. Everything that comes down the river, logs trees, houses, gravel, sand and whatever else, gets sucked down into it and it scrapes out the hole. It’s actually a big turn in the river and back in that corner it gets real dark and spooky at night. Last time, I looked over there and got spooked, so this time, my plan is to slow down and check this area out real good in the dark, for lumens and fish. But it was still early, so I headed further up stream.
This is looking up river toward Marcum hole, the place I want to check out tonight in the dark. It’s up and just behind that second set of trees sticking out from the lift. It’s the one sticking out the furthest, not the first one. Fifty foot deep hole there. The picture above this one is of the tree outcrop looking back down at it.
This is the next buoy up from Marcum hole, maybe called Freezeout hole as it’s just below the end of Freezeout hole.
I ended up going about two hundred yards above the Freezeout hole and waited for dark. I was there about six thirty PM, so had quite a wait for dark. I sat around and took it easy.
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Right above Freezeout hole is this osprey nest area and the big tree to the right of it is a Great Blue Heroin Nesting tree, with about twenty nests in it.
This is one of the spots where I waited for it to get dark.
And another spot where I waited.
There was quite a bit of time before dark, so I moved around a bit, waiting. Just before dark, the fog came down and I thought, oh, oh, it’s gong to white out on me. However, just after dark, the fog lifted back up to about sixty feet and I was relieved and could see a bit in the dark now.
The trip back down the river in the dark was spooky and interesting.
Once it got dark, the camera wasn’t good for much as the camera lens would get condensation on it as soon as I got it out, so we’ll go verbal here.
Just as it was getting dark, I headed back down the river, trying to slow down to let it get darker. I paddled along looking for the signs of the lumens from my paddle and looking for the signs of fish swimming away from me in the lumens. I didn’t see anything above the Marcum hole area. When I got to the Marcum hole area, it looked dark and spooky, but I was going in anyway, bogyman or not. I entered the hole along the north shore bank, going around the edge. I didn’t see anything until I was almost around it, then a larger fish shot by glowing. Lumens are on. I turned around and retraced my path around the hole and ran into a bunch of fish, maybe a foot long or so, it’s hard to tell the size for sure as you see the glow more then the fish, but these were larger ones then down river around the island. I spooked those fish and they would move. I retraced my path again and ran into them again. Did this for several times just to see. The bogyman didn’t get me this time. I left the hole and shot across the river to the other side, which would be the inside of the turn the hole was in and on the lower side. I had seen a lot of fish there before and I wanted to check it out. Sure enough, more fish. Lots of fish just below the hole. I even thought I saw a few larger salmon type looking fish swim by. It’s hard to tell what things are, as most of the stuff, I only see for a flash. There’s a little island just below the hole, I headed to it and picked up a bunch of fish on it’s down river side and also on the channel on the north side. Some bigger fish in here. While I was checking out the channel I ran the boat up on a rock that was just under the surface. Some times I get sorta stuck on these things as they have sharp tops, but I was able to get my paddle on this one and push myself back off. The only real bad thing about running into something is my camera costs fourteen hundred dollars and just a little water on it and it is shot. I’ve lost one that way so far. I ran into the shore a couple times down below the bridge, which wasn’t much of a problem, just backed up.
From here I worked my way down river, seeing a lot of fish, especially along the shore line. It was interesting to note that some places the water would light up and others it would not. There were areas that had lumens and areas that did not, all the way back to Jenner. I tried to do a zig zag back to Jenner, going from one side of the river to the other, looking for lumens and fish all the way. Lots of fish in front of the house on the south side, just above the highway one bridge at Bridge Heaven. Lots of lumens in that area too. The fog was lifting in that area and it was fairly light. As I went under the bridge, I started hitting large areas of no lumens. I thing the tide was going out on me as it was getting late. But there were places below the bridge that I saw a lot of fish. It started to fog in on me again as I was approaching Paddy’s Rock. I wasn’t getting any lumens on the other side of the river by Paddy’s rock. I crossed the river to the rock and picked up some lumens and fish just in front of the rock. I then went back across the river to see if there were any lumens in the Eagle’s landing area, a rather deep hole area. There weren’t hardly any lumens in that area, so I headed down along the shore line on the south side. I picked up some more lumens a ways down by some big redwood logs. Quite a few small fish in this area. I headed back across the river just in front of the upper end of Penny Island to check for lumens and fish, but it wasn’t any good. I wanted to check the deep trench just below the highway one road, as there where a lot of fish in there the trip before, but the lumens weren’t good now, so I didn’t see much. I was working my way to the visitor’s center where I decided I would pull out of the night, as I was tired and decided it was enough for one night.
As I approached the Jenner visitor’s center the fog lifted a bit more, the wind died and it was a real nice night out.
This is what it looked like.
A successful night out in the fog.
It turned out to be a real nice night out, even with the fog. Visibility was fairly good and the weather was actually fairly nice. I leaned that there are likely lumens in the river even when the tide isn’t real high. It was interesting to note that in places there were lumens and places there were not lumens. Lumens are in salty water, not in fresh water, so it shows how the water is moving around, if one can figure it all out. I would say there seemed to be a lot of lumens especially, just below the Marcum hole, which is also known as Sheep Head Creek hole. I saw a lot of lumens and fish, most of the way down to the highway one bridge, especially along the shore line, but even out the middle of the river in some places. From what I saw, I still think I saw larger fish up river in the Marcum hole area, then down around Penny Island. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the poop to check out the area around Penny Island tonight. Next time, maybe. Bed time for me.