Tonight I went down to Jenner, Ca. to the Russian River mouth where the river meets the pacific ocean. The purpose of the night trip was to see if there were any photo phosphorous plankton in the water. This stuff glows in the dark when disturbed, so one can see fish and things moving beneath the water and when one paddles a boat, the paddles make a lot of light. Everything that gets disturbed glows for just a few seconds.
So, I got to Jenner around 8:30, just before dark. The sun set at eight ten and there was no moon. It was fairly foggy when I got there, but it lifted to about sixty feet after about a half hour, hiding the stars. High tide was at nine-twenty. It was fairly high at 5.9 feet. The mouth of the river was fairly wide open, so the sea could come in fairly unrestricted, which lets the salt water from the ocean come into the river fairly fast. The river water was flat, almost dead calm. Perfect
I’m giving all this info mostly just to record it, so I have it for next time as it takes a lot of things to line up to make a good lumen’s night. I’m not sure I have it all squared away as far as what has to be lined up, but I think I’m getting there, because tonight was the best night so far, that I’ve seen. I’m also not really sure how to spell lumns, or lumens, or?
So, I put my kayak in the water and headed out to the head of the island, which is called Penny Island. My plan was to first check out an area near there, but I also had to wait until it got a little darker. I was surprised to find some people already there ahead of me. A guy named Louie and several chicks in kayaks. I said hi and moved off toward the mouth and ran into some really good lumen’s and it wasn’t even very dark yet. I let some of the ladies know and then headed down toward the mouth of the river, as I wanted to check out how much ocean water was coming into the river. A good flow of salt water was coming into the river and it was full of the bio plankton that causes the water to glow. It was getting darker, as I headed back along the shore line checking for fish that glow and rocket away from you as you scare them. Didn’t see to many yet, but boy, was the water full of the bio plankton, every paddle glowed real bright and the bow of the boat was making a wake that glowed too.
By the time I got back to the head of the island, it was fairly dark and there was plankton glow most everywhere. I started seeing a lot of fish shooting around, glowing and darting away like rockets, especially around the shore lines. Watched some seals frolicking around in the water for awhile, they sure seemed to be having fun.
Turned out to be one of the best bio plankton nights I’ve seen yet. I was also out last night, high tide was 5.7 feet at 8:30, but the bio plankton wasn’t near as good, didn’t’ see any fish at all. Maybe the key is a higher, high tide, needs to get around 5.9 feet just after dark?
Had a great time out there. Was home around 10:30 PM.