Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.
The question was, what to do today?
I woke up this morning with intentions of going to Santa Rosa to do some shopping, but I just couldn’t seem to get it in gear for that, so I went down to Monte Rio to Kayak instead. Tomorrow for Santa Rosa shopping, I think. ;O)
The fog was just lifting for the day as I put my boat in the water at the boat ramp area.
Fishermen were steelhead fishing on the Russian River.
There were several steelhead fishermen, mostly in boats fishing the area.
The report was fishing wasn’t too good on the river right now, not here and not up river either. It seems they think there aren’t many steelhead in the river, which to me is good, as that means they likely moved into the smaller creeks and streams to do their mating and egg laying, that’s why they come up the river in the first place.
As I was down at the river’s mouth the day before, I also knew that there just wasn’t as many new fish coming into the river right now, for what ever reason. More will come, but no one can know when.
Below, you can see some guys fishing from their boats at Monte Rio. I paddled down past them. Of course I had to stop and shoot the bull with them for a bit.
The turtles are out when it’s sunny.
The sun was out and the turtles where getting some of it as you can see in the picture below.
It was a real nice day down there on the river as you can see below, looking down river towards Villa Grande.
And there were birds along the shore line.
At this time of year, there are a lot of these Blue Jays along the shores of the river, as you can see below.
There’s always a Great Blue Heron or two on the river too, as you can see in the picture below.
Too lazy to paddle very far.
I didn’t paddle very far down the river today, as it seemed like a real lazy day. I spent some time, an hour or so at the Villa Grande hole, just sitting around checking things out on the river. I saw several spent steelhead heading back down the river while in this area, but didn’t get any good pics of them.
After awhile I started back up the river, taking my time, just enjoying the day. When I went by the turtles I saw on the way down, one more had joined the other three I had seen on the way down, as you can see in the picture below.
And this pair of Mallard ducks were also taking it easy on the shore as I passed, see below.
Fishermen were still at it.
The fishermen where still at it, but no fish were caught, at least not yet today. Below, you can see the fishermen in their boats, fishing away.
I shoot the bull with them for a bit and went on up the stream some more. I got this photo of a merganser pair just in front of the boat ramp. Normally, the males, the one on the right, don’t hang out with the females, the one on the left, except at this time of year, mating season. See below.
There were go back steelhead going back down the river.
It was another day of go back fish. Go backs are the big fish that came up to do their mating and egg laying and then head back to the ocean. Some of them are in real bad shape, some barely alive. It’s hard to imagine what all they go though up river to do the mating thing. It’s not an easy life. The real healthy steelhead, you rarely see, not like the slower go back fish.
I spotted this go back steelhead fish, just in front of the boat ramp at Monte Rio. It is upside down and barely moving, but it is alive. It moved away from me as I approached. I think most of these types end up as seal food. This one was about two feet long.
Below is another picture of the same fish. It’s not dead yet.
No one seems to care about these poor old fish.
Poor old fish. Interesting, if this was a cat or a dog, we’d be taking it to the vet or something. Fish just don’t rate. You can see most of it’s tail is rotted off and this fish is in real poor shape. Why doesn’t some one take it back to the ocean?
Called it a day after that and took the boat out and headed home.
At home I made the new, under the van propane tank mud guard out of the floor mat I found on the river yesterday. It came out ok and should work out ok. I will keep my eyes open for a piece of conveyor belt rubber while I’m in the desert, which I will be shortly, in Arizona. I should be able to find some conveyor belt rubber somewhere around an old mine. The floor mat rubber is ok and will likely hold up for a long time, but the conveyor belt rubber is the toughest stuff around, so I’m still looking for a piece of it for the job.
Some spring yard work got accomplished today also.
I also planted a pomegranate bush and did some pruning on some of my fruit trees in the yard, as spring is getting ready to pop around here.
That’s it for the day, had another good one.