This is a long simmering difference of opinion that goes back a couple of years. I was asked to not use my belly boat on a local quarry surrounded by a county park. 2 things I would like to point out. 1.spending 4 years going to college to get a conservation degree and then being reduced to take park fees at a county park has to be frustrating. 2.I like challenging bureacrats to think past the black and white of the written regulation.
I was asked to not use my belly boat in this quarry which is a nice smallmouth ,panfish, and hatchery trout fishery. Their logic is that it is considered an inflatable like a rubber raft restricted in use to the beach area. While people use canoes, row boats, and a local dive school tows around marker bouys in the other areas of the quarry.How do I illustrate that this is a watercraft to their satisfaction?Thank you
Hi Coach Robb,
It sounds as if they need to be
educated on the current state of the art of
inflatables in general. Apparantly someone
in the planning process had visions of
children paddling their inflatable swim
rings all over the quarry and slipping out
and getting drowned. It sounds as if their
policy would preclude any inflatable device
including the high zoot inflatable pontoon
and belly boats. Are there others with
similar complaints? Perhaps local flyshops
that might take up your cause. I’d
recommend teaming up with any others that
could help support your cause and attending
a meeting of the county commissioners. Go
armed with plenty of information on suitable
inflatable craft. I’d also shower them with
politeness and show them what a polite and
organized group flyfishers can be.G
Flyfishers can vote and elected officials
will listen to voters. I suspect that most
manufacturers of pontoon boats and tubes
have already included arguments in thier
brochures that allude to their safety.
Use them. A requirement for wearing a
Coast Guard approved life jacket might
alleviate some of their concerns and is
already a requirement in many areas. Good
luck with your quest. Warm regards, Jim
It is an inflatable, therefore more succeptible to being punctured than say a wooden rowboat or a canoe. This is the risk I think they are trying to protect against. Maybe if you had a life preserver on board that would make them happier. I must admit that I see their point. Other alternative would be to agree not to wonder more than 50 yds from shore.
jed
JC, I love reading your posts, and the fact that you cut through the BS. Jed, I’m tired of people trying to protect me. My whole problem seems that we’ve gotten a way from personal responsibilty and that living life involves risk,accidents happen, and the fact that there isn’t always some party to shift the blame to. Pretty ironic for an insurance agent. We seem to spend our whole lives looking at worst case scenerios and lose sight of reality. As an aside I’ve asked underwriters to show me all the kids in wheel chairs crippled by trampolines.Hmmmmmm.
Here’as a list of float tube rules in force at a lake I’m investigating. Maybe if you suggested some of these they would be more receptive.
“This page was last modified on May 06, 2003
FLOAT TUBE RULES AND REGULATIONS
1.No tubes allowed on Saturday, Sunday and holidays until the last 3 hours of daylight. Monday thru Friday tubers can fish all day!
2.Waders must be worn while float tube fishing.
3.A U.S. Coast Guard approved personal floatation device must be worn at all times.
4.All float tube anglers must possess a readily available whistle or horn to warn approaching craft.
5.At least 12 square inches of international orange material must be worn or displayed at least 12 inches from the surface of the water at all times.
6.Float tubers are restricted to within 400 ft. of shore.
7.During extreme weather conditions the lake management reserves the right to close the lake to tubing.
8.Failure to observe these regulations will result in you being asked to leave the lake.”
Yikes! Don’t suggest number one on that list, that rule “has to go”. The other rules seem more than fair to me.
JC that post is great! Go figure 
Coach,
Same dang thing happened to me …also in a county park (no motors of any kind and apparently no inflatables either). Brand new belly boat and frog feet, nice long rod for dappin’. I was in the water about 15 min when the park police came along and told me to go over to the area designated for swimming if I wanted to “play with that thing.” I was getting steamed and headed back to town to make a big scene by walking through the county office bldg in my muddy boots and bellowing like a lovesick moose…but its a 45 minute drive and I cooled down before I got there. I think I’ll try it again this year just to see if they’ve updated their rules. I’ll bring it up at a county federation of sportsmen’s clubs meeting. If I can’t get any action that way I’ll walk down the street and punch one of those county officials on the nose. There’s enough of em in my neighborhood. And they all can’t run faster than me! Sheesh…and yesterday I helped stock trout in that lake.
Ol’ Bill
Here in Ohio, I call before going on a (new to me) public lake as individual lake regs can & sometimes do vary. Years ago, I met a fellow tuber who was thrown off Mogadore (no motors)…2 years ago, I was told “No problem” for Turkeyfoot Lake, which has (I believe) unlimited horsepower. I don’t know what, if any, restrictions apply to Mogadore now, but I DO know that the float tubes & PFDs today are far better & safer than what was available not all that many years ago. Unfortunately, laws & regulations often do not change/update as quickly as equipment does, so you almost have to “lobby” for progress.
Mike
The world would be much better off if people would mind their own business. It makes people feel important to be able to tell others what they can and can’t do. How is a person float tubing infringing on the rights of others so that it has to be prohibited? I just wish that survival of the fittest applied to humans like it does other animals. If your stupid you die if your smart you live to the next day. It has worked for billions of years and leave it up the the superior, yeah right, human species to try and go against it. They find it more worthy to protect idiots from themselves then to send kids my age over to their death in a pointless war. Kill off the fittest and protect all the weak ones, from themselves, it makes so much sense.
They should let people do what they want and not have to save them. If it was up to me the regs would state ; Go tubbing if you want but it sucks to be you if you screw up because we aren’t going after you. There would be a lot less people with fewer problems because they either wouldn’t go out or they would be fish food, a good way to produce larger brood stock G
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
SheTies,
It seems to me that the first rule is for liability and for the safety of tubers. Fewer pleasure boaters on the lake during the hours that tube fishing is allowed.
No such rules in Minnesota, even though this State is famous for rules that don’t make sense.
Remember Minnesota is the State that brought you Prohibition of Alcohol, and Smoking or Non Smoking in Resturants. Now it has gone to No Smoking in Resturants,Public Buildings, within 50 feet of any Commercial Building enterance, and Bar/Resturants where Food is more than 50% of the sales.
But Minnesotan’s know better to mess with people who Fish, or Hunt!
PS: One of those tall poles with and Orange Flag is a good addition to any Fishing Tube.
~ Parnelli
"Down in the bottom of the Itty Bitty Pool.
Swam Three Little Fishies, and a Mommy Fishy too.
“Swim”, said the Mommy Fishy, “Swim if you can.
And they, swam swam, all over the Dam!”
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 08 April 2005).]
I’m looking at our current BC fishing regulations synopsis and I don’t see any mention of day restrictions or time of day restrictions for tubing.
I would have a problem with a rule that told me I couldn’t go out tubing on the weekend or holiday. IMHO that is ridiculous. When else does someone how works full-time, mon-fri get time to fish? My hubby works 10-12 hours a day and gets sun, mon off. So that leaves one day when we can fish together and it’s on a weekend. Unless we took time off from work to fish (not realistic with our jobs) we would never get the chance to tube… rant rant rant… sorry but that rule scares me.
There is a test and license system in place here in BC for boat operators. It even covers jetskiis etc… don’t need to have the license for a tube. The overcrowding experienced at so many fishing spots in the USA does not seem to extend to the majority of fishing spots in BC. Don’t get me wrong, we have our popular/famous/productive and therefore overcrowded locations but I never go to them. Well okay I have other productive spots I go to.
Being visible on the water is the main issue. The international orange patch or flag is a good idea. A glow stick or two and a LED head-lamp (wear it on your head) will help people see you when light levels are diminished.
The whistle is a good idea too. I have a FOX whistle from my waterpolo coaching days. Very loud whistles those ones.
[This message has been edited by SheTies (edited 08 April 2005).]
A few year back I was looking to purchase a float tube which I thought I could use here in Pennsylvania. I was then told that they (air filled) are illegal floats in Pa. So I never followed up on a purchase yet I see them sold in our local stores and have yet to see one used in Pa.
If anyone knows if the law has been changed or modified let me know.
Well, I for one am getting one of those tall poles with an orange flag!! Just in case I fall in and drown, someone will find that damned expensive float ring and put it to good use.
If flyfishing were a sin, I’de be the devil’s right hand man.
Several lakes that I’ve fished have similar regs as the ones ducksterman posted, with the exception of #1.
I’m surprised #5 is worded exactly the same. Didn’t the people that wrote these regulations ever have math in school? 12 square inches is a very small patch of orange. A 3" X 4" piece of material would be 12 square inches. I think what they really meant is a 12" square but that’s not what is written.
My point is, do you think people that come up with these laws can really understand what is safe and what is not? What is good clean use of a resource or what is polluting and disrespectful?
The reason float tubes are banned from several lakes I fish is “No human contact with the water.” Do the people that come up with this actually think that shore fisherman and boat fisherman make no contact with the water? Do they think that a person wearing waders and in a float tube can urinate in the water as easily as a person in a boat or on shore? Do they think the use of fins is as polluting as the exhaust from boat motors?
What about safety? Have you ever seen someone fall out of a moving float tube? How about a float tube crashing into another float tube and sinking it? Ever seen a speeding float tube wipe out a boat dock?
Joe