So, last night I decided to go out late to see if there were any lumens up the river just a bit.
Lumens is short for photo phosporous plankton. I got out there around six thirty PM. Headed up the river from Jenner, about four miles, almost up to the osprey area, just above the boat or walk in state camp area, where I waited for it to darken up a bit. It was a 5.5 foot high tide near 9 PM. It got dark, just after eight PM.
Just as it was getting a little dark, I headed back down the river. Just above Marcum hole, also known as Sheep Creek hole,which is a deep one about fifty feet deep, I saw a lot of fish in the lumens on the inside of that turn. Was a little surprised as it was a bit early and I didn’t think the tide was in far enough, but that big ol hole must have been full of salt water as there were already a lot of lumens in the area. Saw a lot of fish. It seems there were bigger fish in this area, then there were down river around Penny Island. Saw a lot of larger ones, just below that hole on the inside of the turn. Not too far past that, I ran into dense fog. Couldn’t see a thing with the little flash light I had. I could see better where I was with it off. It was so dark, I had to be real careful of running up on stumps and rocks, all the way back to Jenner. The fog got a little better as far as seeing as I approached the highway one bridge. Saw a lot of fish on the way down to it. After going under the bridge, it got real foggy, no shore lights to guide me in this area. Lots of fish and I saw one big one, but I think it was a seal. This seal really lite up well under water. Didn’t see any other seals that night.
It was really dark in this area and I knew there were some rocks in this area, near the shore on the mountain side of the river, so I tried to stay away from the shore line as much as possible. I missed all the rocks. As I rounded the turn, near Paddi’s rock, I missed that one too, the lights from Jenner showed though the fog, so I could see a little better. Lots of lumens all the way down with plenty of fish to be seen also.
It was a real good lumens night, with lots of fish. I’m not sure why, some nights there are more fish than other nights. It might just have to do with it being darker, but I’m still not sure why sometimes there aren’t that many fish. I originally thought it might be because of a higher high tide, but that doesn’t seem to be the reason.
When I got back to the Jenner area, I decided to call it a night when I got to the visitors center, as I was fairly beat and already had a good night, so I didn’t check out anything around the island area. I got off the water about ten PM. I was the only one on the water, an interesting night.