American River Triangle 10-21-06

Met Travis at 0'dark30 at Discover park Saturday morning to try for the thing they call salmon.
We spent our time getting ready on the small launch to the right of the Jiboom Street Bridge. Paddled up to the train bridge just below the Cap City freeway. On the way up we saw one PB hook up a few hundred yds below the bridge. Should be a good day!
Anchored under the bridge and jigged the hole. I had NO idea how many trains use that bridge. Man are they LOUD!
We kept hearing fish roll upstream and on the other side of the pillar. After enough taunting I went to investigate. Turned out to be a huge beaver that kept slapping the water.
On the way down stream Travis says to me, " Crap, my reel just broke." We both have the Abu Garcia 6500 series. I asked if everything was OK and started to reel in when I said, " Crap, mine just broke too!" The spool tightener knob was askew and when I tightened it the reel handle would not engage the spool. Within one minute both of our reels failed. Travis got his under control. I will have to take mine apart to see what the prob is. It was like the Bermuda Triangle where things go wrong all at the same time.
We get to the launch and there is an event going on making landing at the launch impossible. We paddle to the other side of the event and start to pull our kayaks on the beach.
A guy approaches me and tells me I needed to paddle on the other side of the bridge structure when landing as there is  DART training in session.
I asked if he was in charge. He said he was one of the guys in charge; which means no. So I asked why there were no signs saying the boat launch would be unavailable for public use during specified hours? His response was , " Because we don't have to." Then he explained that if they notified the public that they were training there would be crowds of people walking over to watch them. I scanned the horizon and didn't SEE any DART groupies.
Don't ya think as a common courtesy to the public, especially when they pay to enter and use the facilities, something should be posted to let them know the facility is not available for use? If there was sineage I would have launched elsewhere and we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Then he told me about his concern for his divers. So I asked, " If you have divers in the water, where is your dive flag??"
He said the writing on the side of the DART vehicle parked near the top of the levee was the dive flag.
Now walks over DART personell #2.
DART #1 says , "You need to stay 150 feet away of any police activity."
Police activity???
It should be obvious what is going on here says the DART #1 guy.
Obvious?? With all the people sitting around and tables and pop-up canopies and RV's it kind of looks like a diving or fishing tournament to me.
Where have you ever seen a group of people standing around a beach where the water is 6 feet deep?
Ocean Cove Randy Fry Big X tournament. Bendo at Mendo Tournament, HMB tournament. I see it all the time.
Then he tells me he dives at Ocean Cove and NOBODY uses a dive flag there. When I said that I do he puffed and said, "Oh come on!!"
Now DART personall #3 and #4 walk up.
So here I am, majorly inconvenienced because I have to lug all my gear up the beach instead of being able to use the ramp I launched from and am talking now with 4 law enforcement personnel merely because I asked why no one put up an information sign.
Guy # 2 was a bit more professional and explained that they notified Parks and Rec and it was the job of Parks and Rec to put up signs. He also said that in the future that they will follow through to see if adequate information can be posted.
Great day ON the water even though we caught zero fish and heard of no others caught. Getting off the water was a bit more of a hassle.

It was a great adventure on the water yesterday.  I enjoyed exploring the american for my first time.  How dare you ask the sheriff/dart guy why they didn't post any signage that we would not be able to land at the boat ramp that we launched at.      He can do whatever he wants because he is a sheriff and he can.  I hear there is a huge following for dart opperation crashing by public groups, they have to be carefull about that!  I can definatley see how watching a bunch of people sitting around tables under shade canopies and standing on the shore with ropes in their hands can draw a lot of the public. 

  That was crazy!  I would be scared if I was one of those divers , underwater at discovery park with power boat traffic and no kind of dive flag or bouys in the water.  Thats unreal.  You just ask him a question and then next thing you know there are four of them.  Give someone a little power and it goes straight to their head.

I posted a report already.  It has a few pics and a video, but it isn't nearly as thorough as yours.

Travis, your report was a lot more accurate about the fishing and the river. Mine was mostly to vent....
The pics iI took of the beaver were a little too far away to be recognizable. That thing was huge!
No Mooch, it wasn't the bikini kind. Although we did see a bikini on a boat. Maybe Travis got a pic of that too.

Next time put a bannana in their boat.

No Mooch, it wasn't the bikini kind.