River, Wind, and Red Bullz...

[Steve Sutton]

background check can jump regular security screening, keep their shoes on, carry liquids and solids, and not be scanned and admit into an area where if you were determined you'd have access to dozens of planes and thousands of people......the Military and the River Police can't motor up to an open 18 ft boat, look inside, make a determination that the occupants are law abididng fishermen who just want to fish and not kill them?.....and this from a boat staffed by trained professionals armed with automatic weapons, a go fast boat, a boom across the basin and more of the same a radio call away, not to mention a "guns hot" authorization if you were to try to breach their boom......

They dispatched a boat to tell me not to take pictures towards the shore on a trip there....like if I was trying to document something I couldn't take them from the other side of the river....like I couldn't do a google search and get an overhead, with GPS co-ordinates of the entire facility, if I had "harm to them" in mind......

The restriction is ludicrous.....a rediculous show of meaningless force.....mount a 20 mil chain gun on the boom and blow my *** out of the water I pass a posted deadline.....don't waste my tax money watching me anchor inside some "imaginary line", wait till I get lines out and then come out and announce "you're over the line".......

And the dumbest part....go at night.....leave your running lights on....fish where you want to as long as you don't approach the boom.....seems they believe terrorists only operate in broad daylight.....


Steve

[reelhooker]

I have been fishing that area of the river for over 2 decades with my father and last week I had an officer come up and tell me that I had to move 300 yards from where i was at. That would have put me on the other side of the river. I have never been told I cannot fish that part of Blount Island and I have been there countless times when others have been flagged away and I was never bothered. This time it was the USCG but I did not want to argue with them, so I just left. What is the actual law pertaining to that area? Also, are there any new maps or zones that have been recently added to that area? I was fishing there a few weeks ago and watched 2 other boats get asked to leave by the USMC patrol boats and they never bothered us. Last week it was the USCG and we were told 300 yards. Thank you.

[Slug-O]

ok this is the last post in this thread as I will not crap in another mans fishing thread...The RFA is getting to the bottom of all this restricted areas. I meeting is being held soon and I will post more information as I know.

thanks everyone, SLug-O

[TugCapt]

Theres no arguing with those turds lol

[Brother Dave]

It's cool Leon...they get under my skin too....it would be nice if all these Law Enforcement folks were on the same page on this. It's frustrating when you read the law, try to abide by the law, and they keep CHANGING the friggin law to suite each and every LEO's interpretation of the law. That's why I've kinda steered clear of there and I'm sure thats what they want anyways. Keep hassling and they won't come back...didn't know they got the Coasties running people off now too! The other one that gets under my skin is when they have a boat docked at the main blount Island dock. They'll have 2 patrol boats out there SOMETIMES with their lights on near the ship. You're running down the river in the channel minding your own business when out they shoot from the dock to run you down like a criminal shouting to slow down with a guy on the bow with a friggin machine gun. Did it to me one time and had my daughter all freaked out thinking we were going to jail! I always look over there but these guys were not out in plain view....they were behind the bow of the ship like they were hiding. I see them and slow down, but do they turn around????Heck no....they gotta run up to me on plane damn near swamp me and start yelling like idiots! I was well south of the middle of the river...I told them if they were out where they could be seen I woulda slowed down earlier. You can't always tell which ship they are going to be guarding...not all look Military....ok I'm done venting now....the Reds are getting thick...go catch some! LOL

[reelhooker]

I think I will steer clear of that area until things either die down or I know what the actual law is there. I would have been in trouble if I pointed my rifle at someone in a threating manner in the Army. We had to have our weapons in the low ready while on patrol, does that not apply to Coast Guard? I had them point an M240B at me and was curious about that also.

[blueyed-goof]

I went to the link to read the regs, then out of curiosity plugged the named coordinates into google earth, just to see how "accurate" the guys in the go fast boats are in telling us to STAY AWAY. Every time we've set anchor, dropped line and THEN been told that we're too close, it's been we have to stay outside the buoys...the one at the tip of that little jetty and then the one further up near the bridge...anything inside that is YOU"RE TERRORISTS GET OUT reaction.

based on the regs and the coordinates provided, this is the line I got that we need to stay oon the outside of:



and because the question came up with Steve, since I mentioned that it looks like we can actually be further in from the buoy than the guys say, Steve mentioned that perhaps the jetty shows extended rocks(and you really can't see the buoy in the picture above) and that's just the low tide shot. So I zoomed WAAAAAAAAAY in to see how far off that spot is from the buoy that we were told we had to stay on the outside of:



clearly we can see the buoy in that shot.....so clearly the guys behind the line are "padding" their DO NOT CROSS THIS IMAGINARY LINE boundary. I have no problem with some security measures, or the people that provide the security. What I do have a problem with is the stupidity of things like this. The guys whose job it is to enforce the rules don't seem to know or care (somedays you can pick one) what the real boundaries are (and I say perhaps they don't care b/c I watched a guy set up WAAAAAY inside the line and start fishing and never got run off, when the police/marines/coasties/whatever were out on the dock and the go fast boat just chilling out watching them) come out AFTER we anchor and set rods to tell us that we're inside some imaginary line and we have to get out.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what comes of this meeting.

Danibeth

[TugCapt]

Unfortunately each person has their individual thought on the exact invisible line position.

[Morocco_madness]

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[Steve Sutton]

FOR YOU.....for other people that might not have the boat needed to run further distances from the ramps, for the people that can't handle the jetties, or for those that are time constrained, (to mention a few), Blount Island is, or should be, a great place to fish...close to a good ramp, protected in all but the worst of conditions, small boat friendly and when the fish are there its as good a spot as any......

The problem with it is that no one enforces the rules the same way twice...let one person fish inside the line and run the next one out....don't enforce the "line" as it appears in writing.....run people off for no reason other than you didn't get any last night, or so it seems.....its should be no different than any other "restricted" area....post the rules, mark the boundaries, enforce those rules equally, all the time......simple as that.....

And please lets not go with the "they risk their lives every day" route....The Parking Lot isn't Afghanistan and the service men, and women if there are any, are in no greater danger there than you and I are when we drive to work.....don't mistake that comment for a lack of respect for our armed forces cause that wouldn't be the case....my point is that its not "dangerous", (like I said how hard is it to look iside an open 18' boat and note that there are no rockets and no AK's and the operator isn't holding a dead man switch).....its a security job that should be as simple as marking a deadline, putting a sign on that post so that the poeple who don't read anywhere but there know what that line means, and then enforcing that line when its crossed.....do it that way and "shame on me" if I cross the line......do it the way they do it now and all you have is the place that I fished for the last three trips is suddenly a spot where a "go fast boat" loaded with people that apparantely don't know where the line is feel like they need to brandish ashow of force, (in the form of an automatic weapon on a stanchion), to tell me that I have to leave a spot that I have every legal right to be in.....

Being in the Service....risking ones life...doing ones job....doesn't give anyone the right to force law abiding citizens out of a place they have a legal right to be.....


Steve