Saturday January 3, 2015 Monte Rio CA.
Today, I was determined to launch my boat at the muddy Monte Rio boat ramp, so off I went. The ramp was fairly muddy, but I was able to get my boat in the water by going down the side and only took on a little mud.
I headed down river passing by these steelhead fishermen. I stopped to talk with them for a bit before continuing on down the river.
Just below them, I spotted this little grebe diving in the water.
And just past that was this great egret fishing along the shoreline.
I stopped at the Villa Grande hole for a bit, then continued on down where I ran into this misty part of the river.
I continued down to the Rein’s beach area and just below that, I ran into three of these black crowned night herons. Here is one of them.
I continued on down past the Casini ranch to Brown’s hole at this point. There were a few fishermen fishing here, but I didn’t see any action.
I paddled on down to just before the Duncan’s Mills bridge and stopped for a bit of a break before turning back up the river.
I paddled back up to the Casini ranch riffle and stopped for a good time watching for any fish moving up the river, but didn’t see anything. The high tide had the water too high on the riffle, so it was under water and there wasn’t a riffle.
This was the spot where I sat at the Casini Riffle.
This pair of mallard ducks was paddling around me while I sat there enjoying the day.
I paddled back up the river to Rein’s beach and just above that this king fisher sat still long enough for me to get a good picture of it.
While I was watching the king fisher, this green heron flew out of the bushes and landed close to me. They like to hide in the bushes and fish.
I stopped here and there on the way back up the river.
This is one of the places I usually stop, looking up the river towards Sheridan Beach.
Just above the Villa Grande hole, I saw this great egret which I passed by fairly close. It’s been preening which I can tell because of he little white feathers on the end of it’s bill.
As I was approaching Monte Rio, I came across the fishermen again. I stopped to talk a bit with the guys. They had had some hookups and some catches too.
I left them at it and headed for the boat ramp to get my boat out.
The boat ramp was getting pretty torn up by the boat trailers, but I was able to get my boat out on the right side. I had to be careful of the mud and also carry my boat through the mess to keep it clean enough to put on the top of the car. Of course, carrying my boat over this and up the hill to my car was a bit hard on my back, but I’ll survive.
The muddy boat ramp.
I went on home for the day and hit the couch for a much needed nap and that was it for a nice day paddling on the Russian River.