Sunday January 12, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
Kayaking Monte Rio to below Casini’s and back
I thought today would be a good day to paddle down past Casini’s Ranch, down past the Duncan’s Mills bridge and back again, so that’s what I did.
I was on the water at Monte Rio just after eleven in the morning to a nice day.
I passed Darwin in the slot fishing. I was going to shot the bull with him for a bit, but he got a signal from a lady friend up at the ramp, so he had to leave to go get her.
I continued down the river.
This is the view as I approached the Villa Grande hole. I stayed there for just a bit, talked with a fisherman that came down off the road and then continued on down the river.
I passed this great blue heron which was in a tree getting some sun and preening. 
This is my view as I approached Moscow hole at Rein’s beach.
No problem crossing Casini’s ripple
Since the river’s mouth was closed, I was able to cross the Casini ripple without getting out of the boat as the water was high enough to get over it without any trouble.
Lots of fisher people
I started to run into more fishermen immediately after crossing the ripple. Seems the fishing has been good down here below Brown’s hole.
Down in front of the Duncan’s Mills fire station I ran into the biggest crowd of fishermen I’ve seen down here in a long time.
Here is the view as I approached the area. Duncan’s Mills bridge in the back. The fish were hitting as I approached and these guys had two on. One released and the other broke the leader as it was being landed.
Here’s the line of boats down there. I noticed the number two boat from the left has a lady in it and she seemed to have the nicest looking boat too.
That’s the lady and her boat and the guy next to her has a fish on.
That’s a steelhead
See, I told you the guy had a fish on. :O) Looks like a nice steelhead.
Down the river I go
After watching the fisher people for awhile I continued on down stream, down below the Duncan’s Mills bridge to see if there was any fishing action down there. No fisher persons, but the seals and sea lions were on the hunt.
This is my view from my turn around point below the Duncan’s Mill’s bridge, looking back up the river.
I didn’t stay down there too long before I headed on back up the river. As I passed under the bridge, I saw a guy on a horse. Seemed he was from Casini’s ranch and was kicking these two guys off the property as they’d come in off the road at the end of their property.
At least that is what it looked like to me.
Here’s a picture of them.
Blog readers recognized me
I continued on up the river stopping to talk with one of the fishermen in a boat for a bit, then continued and ran into the lady with the fancy boat. Turned out Heather and John were blog readers and recognized me, so I chatted with them a bit before continuing on up the river.
John in the boat on the left and Heather in the boat on the right. Don’t know who the other guy was but he left to go up river and I ran into him again up above Moscow hole.
This is my view looking up past Rein’s beach, which would be just out of sight on the left.
I watched this hawk land in a tree near me, but I don’t know what kind it is?
Lots of reflections today. This is my view as I paddled up to Sheraton beach which you see.
I continued on up toward Monte Rio. Just below Monte Rio, I ran into Andrew. He fishes out of Villa Grande area a lot, so we shot the bull for awhile before I continued to Monte Rio and pulled my boat out for the day, around four thirty PM.
Another nice day on the Russian River.
