Big River 072410

Dave W and I met in FB Sat morning and headed to Big River.  Weather radio had the swell down from 8 ft on Friday to 7 ft today.  The wind was slight. A fair sized swell was crashing around the exposed rocks and beaches.  The surfers were out at the river mouth but the break was only about 3-4 ft.  We headed north,  along the Mendo headlands,  through a calm inside passage.  We picked up a few rock fish and lots of small lings on the way out.  Traveling through the passage was beautiful with the bottom visible at 20ft +.  We spent a couple of hours fishing a reef on the north end of the headlands, about half way to Russian Gulch.  We were behind waves breaking over an exposed outer reef.  Fishing was great, catching was not.  We picked up a couple of rockfish.  On the way back, we fished a reef off the south headlands.  The rocky bottom was visible at 30 ft.  We finished off limits of rockfish.  DaveW picked up two nice Cabs and I picked up one barely legal ling.  Going back, the Big River surf had picked up a couple of feet making for an interesting crossing.  Great day on the water  and great conditions.

Way to go you D guys. See you next weekend. Craig. That launch looks sweet as hell

beautiful outing, as much for the sense of adventure as for the fishing

Great picture of the cave.  Where exactly is that?  I know there is one at Russian Gulch that was described to me as being like the one you saw, but you said you didn't go all the way up to Russian Gulch? 

That's one of my favorite spots.   Thanks for heading out there with me, Doug.  We paddled over seven miles that day (I forgot that I didn't turn on my GPS until we got out there).

Man, I don't understand Lings.  We went to the same place I killed them last week, and I couldn't even pull up one of those male snakes everyone's been catching.  I fished a like 10 or 12 inch swimbait that looks like a fat trout and had a huge takedown, but it shook off about halfway up.  I got 2 cabs and a limit of rockies anyhow.  Released a lot of rockies.

You know your paddle back in the "channel" is going to be interesting when there's surfers sitting there in what has turned into the "lineup."

Madmax, There's many caves in the Mendo headlands.

I've been out there in big swell days... and have two of my most epic wipeouts trying to get back into the river.  Waves get gnarly there if you catch it wrong. 

Thanks for the report and pictures Doug. Congrats on the rockies.

Jedmo

awesome in every way.

Jim