HVACRat
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2009
- Messages
- 31
My favorite lake, Lake Granger, is fed by a small river, the San Gabriel. Launching on the lake and making your way up river can be a daunting task. The lake and river is fraught with shallows and stumps galore. You really need to have a good GPS track, or be well heeled in running the channel using visual markers, to run the channel on plane; otherwise you just go real slow. This has the unique benefit of keeping most of the people out of the river except for the hard core fishermen. The San Gabriel is a great fishing river, especially when the whites and crappie are running, so even with all the obstacles to get in the river, many people will come in to fish. Once you are in the river proper the channel is very clear and easy to follow and you can run on plane pretty easily.
So this brings me to the rules of the river:
1) If you meet a boat coming head on that is not on plane, you slow down to their speed to pass; if both are on plane just proceed at speed, no reason to slow down.
2) Never overtake and pass another boat on plane and make sure to sound off when overtaking and passing.
3) Stay to the right, just like on the road.
4) Don't anchor on the channel.
5) Slow down for bank fishermen, anchored boats and moored boats.
6) Always be visible to other boats.
The only problem with the San Gabriel in this area is that there is a primitive boat launch, made for canoes and kayaks, but it is pretty easy to launch up to a 14 foot Jon with motor. This allows people access to the river that otherwise wouldn't brave coming up from the lake. As you can guess, many of these people have no clue as to the rules of the river.
One fine Spring day I was running up river and passed another boat coming down river, both of us on plane, we passed each other in a pretty sharp bend in the river; close but with plenty of room to spare. As I make it through the S curve, I hammer down. My boat is fast, it's a 17 foot Jon with a 150 HP, it will run 60 MPH top end and I know this river well. So when I say I hammered down, I was flying once me and the other boat passed each other. So I get to my spot up river, without seeing another soul, and throw the anchor out. As I'm getting ready to start fishing I hear another boat coming up river, it was the guy I met at the S curve; and he was pissed.
He came alongside and told me what for, how I was going too fast, didn't have control of my vessel, was too close to him when we passed each other, etc, etc. I asked him where he was from as he was in a really nice flats boat, like you would see down at the gulf for fishing the flats. I told him what had happened was normal and if he was going to get this mad each time someone did this to him he was going to have a heart attack right here on the river. If he wanted people to go slow when passing, he should go slow. He was still mad and mumbling, but I was largely ignoring him by now. It was clear he wasn't a regular on the river and wasn't going to take my advice. He turned around and blasted off down river.
He hadn't made it a few hundred yards when another boat rounded the curve in front of him by a few hundred yards. The other boat coming up river was Green Bean, a regular on the river and a pretty good friend. Well they blast by each other on plane and I just laugh at the timing of it all. Green Bean throttles back and we start talking about fishing and stuff. Well, Mr. Mad had stopped just shy of the curve, maybe a 1/4 mile down river and was sitting there watching us. I really expected him to come give Green Bean what for as well, which would have been real entertaining, because Green Bean would've probably knocked his teeth out. But he didn't, he just sat there for a few minutes steaming, and then left; heading down river on plane. I've never seen him on the river again.
I have many more like this, but will post them in other posts to keep from making this one post too long.
So this brings me to the rules of the river:
1) If you meet a boat coming head on that is not on plane, you slow down to their speed to pass; if both are on plane just proceed at speed, no reason to slow down.
2) Never overtake and pass another boat on plane and make sure to sound off when overtaking and passing.
3) Stay to the right, just like on the road.
4) Don't anchor on the channel.
5) Slow down for bank fishermen, anchored boats and moored boats.
6) Always be visible to other boats.
The only problem with the San Gabriel in this area is that there is a primitive boat launch, made for canoes and kayaks, but it is pretty easy to launch up to a 14 foot Jon with motor. This allows people access to the river that otherwise wouldn't brave coming up from the lake. As you can guess, many of these people have no clue as to the rules of the river.
One fine Spring day I was running up river and passed another boat coming down river, both of us on plane, we passed each other in a pretty sharp bend in the river; close but with plenty of room to spare. As I make it through the S curve, I hammer down. My boat is fast, it's a 17 foot Jon with a 150 HP, it will run 60 MPH top end and I know this river well. So when I say I hammered down, I was flying once me and the other boat passed each other. So I get to my spot up river, without seeing another soul, and throw the anchor out. As I'm getting ready to start fishing I hear another boat coming up river, it was the guy I met at the S curve; and he was pissed.
He came alongside and told me what for, how I was going too fast, didn't have control of my vessel, was too close to him when we passed each other, etc, etc. I asked him where he was from as he was in a really nice flats boat, like you would see down at the gulf for fishing the flats. I told him what had happened was normal and if he was going to get this mad each time someone did this to him he was going to have a heart attack right here on the river. If he wanted people to go slow when passing, he should go slow. He was still mad and mumbling, but I was largely ignoring him by now. It was clear he wasn't a regular on the river and wasn't going to take my advice. He turned around and blasted off down river.
He hadn't made it a few hundred yards when another boat rounded the curve in front of him by a few hundred yards. The other boat coming up river was Green Bean, a regular on the river and a pretty good friend. Well they blast by each other on plane and I just laugh at the timing of it all. Green Bean throttles back and we start talking about fishing and stuff. Well, Mr. Mad had stopped just shy of the curve, maybe a 1/4 mile down river and was sitting there watching us. I really expected him to come give Green Bean what for as well, which would have been real entertaining, because Green Bean would've probably knocked his teeth out. But he didn't, he just sat there for a few minutes steaming, and then left; heading down river on plane. I've never seen him on the river again.
I have many more like this, but will post them in other posts to keep from making this one post too long.