I love the fall. For kayaking, it doesn't get much better. It was a cool 63 degrees; with no wind at all it was so easy to paddle around the bay. My opinion would be, it was the perfect weather to be out on the Yak.
I really haven't gone to Assonet as much as I normally do during kayaking season. It is only minutes from my house, and such a great spot. Tides are such a factor here though that it’s all about timing. If you get into the bay when it’s close to low tide, even a kayak like mine which can stay afloat in shallow water will get stuck in the middle of the bay if the tide is low enough. We went in at about half way to high tide, and stayed out until peak tide. Even with the current flowing against us, the water was like a sheet of ice, and it was easy to fly against the stream with no trouble at all.
First stop was the little beach on the other side of Rt 24. The view here is great. You can see the whole bay section of the river. It's a great spot. I’m pretty sure its private land, but I have never had any trouble stopping there and hanging out for a while. There are a few sandy beaches around the bay. Most of them are paid membership beaches, so they aren't the best place to stop. Here on the side of Rt 24, it’s great. The only other folks I've seen hanging out here at this beach are other kayakers.
We headed south down the section of the bay which runs alongside of Rt 24. There were schools of fish jumping all over the place. Quite strange that it’s this late in the season and I'm seeing such small fish still schooling around. There must have been a late breading period this season. We were really hoping to see some jellyfish, but just as I had thought, it’s too late in the season to see them this far up in the bay. There were a few Ospreys hanging out in trees down here looking for fish to catch. There is a family of Osprey that frequent this area, due to the nesting area set up alongside the bay. They are always fun to watch as they swoop down from above catching fish with ease.
There’s a little round inlet that Desmond likes to hang out in, so that's where we hung out for a while. This is usually a prime spot for jellyfish, but not this time of the year. The schooling fish though, they were all freaking out as we pulled in the little inlet. They fled to the edges of this little inlet and were splashing around all over the place. It was fun to watch. Desmond was laughing the whole time.
From here we started to paddle back. We stayed along the shore by the reeds, watching the fish jump around the whole way in. We shot across this section and went up some of the salt marshes on the west side. We could not get to far though, because the water was too shallow, and the trail too narrow. We paddled our way back to the overpass at Rt 24. Once we got there, we could see the tide had turned and was already flowing back out. It was a low peak tide, but that didn't matter much to us. Within minutes we were back at the boat ramp at Hathaway Park.
