Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.
Started out the day shopping for my upcoming trip.
I was up bright and early this morning, about nine thirty and headed for our shopping area, Santa Rosa. I wanted to do some food shopping and I needed another dome light for the van and a new grease gun as mine stopped working the other day, just quit working while I was greasing the van.
I did most of my food shopping at Costco and got my light and grease gun at Harbor Freight and was back home by about two pm.
Still time in the day to get some kayaking in.
After putting most of the stuff away, it looked like I still had time to go down and get a yak in. So, off to Monte Rio I went, as it was close and Jenner looked to be a little on the windy side.
I ran into some steelhead fishermen.
I had my kayak in the water just before three. I ran into Steve coming up the back channel of this island in his kayak. He was steelhead fishing and was in hot pursuit of a couple fish he just saw. He said he’d just been down river a bit and had no luck with the fish. There was one other boat, just below Monte Rio. They said they had just hooked a ten pound native steelhead. Native steelhead must be released, only hatchery fish can be taken. I shot the bull with all those guys for awhile and watched them fish and then continued down the river at a leisurely pace.
Below is Steve in his kayak and a boat full of fishermen, just below Monte Rio.
My turtle buddies were still in the same place.
Just below Monte Rio, I ran into the same four turtles I took pics of yesterday.
They seem to be getting used to me, as they didn’t dive into the water this time when I passed them within about fifteen feet.
The sun was mostly out and it was a real nice day on the river as you can see in the picture below looking down the river.
It’s always a pleasure to sit around in the Villa Grande Hole.
I made it down to the Villa Grande Hole and spent about an hour there, sitting in the sun. Down river from here it was a bit on the windy and chilly side, so I didn’t continue down the river. I saw a couple water swirls, the type that fish make, but wasn’t able to see any fish.
There were a couple seals in the area too.
Headed back up the river. I saw a seal in the water, just taking it easy.
Below is what the river looked like as I headed back up the stream, toward Monte Rio.
Just below where the guys were fishing I ran into this harbor seal. It’s resting on a submerged log.
Here’s a picture of the harbor seal, it let me get fairly close to it. I think most of them know me better than I know them.
The sun was getting low in the sky as I finished my paddle and pulled into Monte Rio, as you can see in the picture below.
Not a good fishing day, but great for kayaking.
While pulling my boat out, I ran into Steve again and he said he hadn’t caught any fish. The consensus today was that the steelhead fishing had slowed down a lot, for now.
The big trees are doing their sex thing.
I made it home and barely made it to my coach as I was pooped and my head was hurting. The big redwood trees are shedding pollen right now in huge amounts and that is what is causing my head to hurt. Can you imagine millions of little water mine looking things blowing around in the air and getting in your eyes and nose? Big trees drop pounds of the stuff at this time of year.
Had a good day, just the same.
