Know the regulations

[flygoddess]

[#00bf00]More and More are adding motors to their floating choice (pontoons, small rafts, and canoe and occasionally a float tube)[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]This is a good thing, cause it can make life much easier.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]BUT, there are still some waters that DO NOT allow motors (GAS or ELECTRIC) *note, I don't understand the electric part, but I am sure they have their reason.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]Anyway, a MOTOR is a MOTOR. You must have the floating device LICENSED first off, plus a vest or some other flotation devise even thought what you are on or in is one. Idaho requires a coast guard thing of a small horn or a whistle....I agree with this also.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]We went to one of these NO MOTOR lakes yesterday and there they were. From Utah even. A canoe with a minn kota attached to the side and ONE oar. Plus no #'s on the hull.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]I mentioned to the gentlemen, that this is a no motor lake. Their reply was, it's a little electric motor. DOESN'T MATTER! After I mentioned it, they did leave the lake and a few minutes after they got off, fish and game showed up. I might have saved them a ticket[cool], but I have seen this several times on this small family lake.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]People go out and buy one of those small rubber boats that come with a small electric motor and there they are ready to take it for a test run. No PFD's, no license, but they feel they are alright cause this is the way it came and it is a SMALL ELECTRIC MOTOR. NOT![mad][/#00bf00]
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[#00bf00]I will name two NO MOTOR waters. They are TIBBLE/Silver Fork and Little Dell. There are more, but you must read the PROC. Ignorance is no excuse for the law.[/#00bf00]
[#00bf00]I will add that several of the Unita lakes have changed their laws a few years back to allow electric motors (Washington, Trial, Mirror for a few)[/#00bf00]
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[#00bf00]Anyway, boat safe....catch fish....and NO THE REGS FOR THE WATER![/#00bf00]
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[Majja]

Good write up Flygoddess. Like you said ignorance is no excuse. I think more people need to get tickets for not doing what they are suppose to. Now and some of you know it would be nice for the governing body to pull there heads out and make it clear as how to register a Pontoon/float tube/small raft that is only using small electric motors as propulsion.
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[road]

I might be wrong on this but 2 years ago the State (UT) cleared up the whole thing with PFDs and electric motors.
First lets cover PFDs. If it floats you must have a PFD accessible to you NO EXCEPTIONS. For the longest time I got away with my tube is a PFD. No longer can you do that.
Second if you put a motor (any kind) on anything that floats that thing is now a vessel. It now becomes sugject to all rules and regulation of all other vessels. Yes it is true it may have lesser regs because of it's size. One reg that is the same is this you must have a PFD for each person on board. You must also carry a floating device that can be thrown to a person who is overboard. So this means you have say a 9 foot toon. You add a 30 FLbT electric to it. You now have to carry the following, 1 PFD for each person, 1 throwable floatation device, 1 whistle/horn that can be heard from 100 feet. There is current debate as to wether you need to carry a tow rope, but I think that is comming. I was surprised that they didn't require a bail bucket of some sort. When I asked why all the regs for floats. I got 2 answers from 2 different individuals. One was confority it makes it easier to enforce the laws if they are the same for everyone. The other answer was if you don't want to follow these rules then you shouldn't have made a boat out of it. I took that to mean a float is a float you kick them around. You add a motor and you changed your float to a boat follow the rules. But that info came from the same to rangers who use to argue wether they should give me a ticket for not having a PFD on my donut. One would say yes the other would say I wasn't required to have one.

What I know for sure is I haven't put a trolling motor on my toon. Last year they wanted a fortune to lic it. This year the regs make it a boat. I have enough gear to pack on it just to fish. I have no idea where the hell I'd put a throw that I could get to it and still be able to get to everything else. Just my thoughts on this mess.
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[Dusty_T]

I know this is a sore subject to some -- and our laws here in NE are very similar to the Utah laws....Any motor makes it a boat.

When I was trying to decide between a toon or a tube in late 2005, I think the whole "motor" thing finally got me to decide on the tube (and I am still happy with that decision) -- I knew that if I got a toon, that I would eventually talk myself into the trolling motor -- at which point I might as well have gotten a jonboat or something that is not rubber, full of air and wader dependent.

Having seen Road and his discipline to stay "pure" on the toon...I have to admit I am still thinking that maybe in the future I can mature enough to go down that path....(however seeing the H3 -- there seems to be more "hybrid" type options that were not as matured when I was in the market trying to decide between the 2).
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[flygoddess]

[#008000]Well, being it is a one man/woman boat, I am not familiar with the float cushion thing. That one is fightable, I would think. I know you have to have one on a regular boat, but there again they are made for more than one person.[/#008000]
[#008000]A vest or a belt is all I have been check for. As far as a bail bucket...what do you bail, it is flat.[/#008000]
[#008000]I do carry a tow rope, I will go along with that one. I have had to pull a young boy in once , that got push way out in a tube from the wind. Plus, if I run out of steam, I am hoping a passing by boat would pull me in.[/#008000]
[#008000]It is all coming down to one set of rules. Even the licensing thing is more general now.[/#008000]
[#008000]Mine for the year is $11.75 Registration fee and $10.00 Aged base Uniform fee, which I think everyone with a potoon and motor are looking at the same price now.[/#008000]
[#008000]It is down for me from the past. When registering a $1,400. Pontoon a few years ago, I guess they thought they could tax more.[/#008000]
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[road]

Hi FG I am in full agreement that some of if not most of the regs for tooners (or tubers in certain instances) are absurd! I haven't kept a tow rope on my toon in the past but now have one. Not because I was told to but because I needed it. Also it just good common sense. I don't know what I would or could bail on my toon. Maybe a pocket, but I don't think that would endanger my safety. I also object to even having to license it if I put a trolling motor on it. I have not personally been tagged over no float cushion myself. I kept one with my tube as a PFD (before the rule change) and used it as a portable coffee table. It was a great place to set and eat your lunch. I attached a line to it and let it float alongside me.

All I was trying to say is that they are trying to make all of us fit a cookie cutter image. Heck no 2 toons are alike. You have the itty bitty to the monster 4 fiaherman model. But they are both charged the same fee for licensings. Thats the real reason I haven't put a trolling motor on mine. I just feel ripped off by the govt. If I left a serious foot print on mother nature I could understand the fees. But I don't me and my craft tread lightly. I wuld like my mother to be there for my grand and great grandchildern. I pay to enter and use most of the places I fish, state or private, I have NEVER complained about this. And here I could go on a rant over the govt charged fees. Bottom line for me is, we are over regulated, over taxed, over governed. by a bunch of lazy gutless legislatures who have nothing better to do than burden the public. They should be dealing with the issues of our day. Wait I'm jumping off this soap box now. Geeeez I didn't mean to rant. Pardon me.
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[road]

Hey Dusty it's a struggle to stay "pure". And I will be adding some refinements this spring. A trolling motor will not be one of them! I also will be buying me another tube. As much as I have grown to enjoy my toon. It's just not right for everything. I am considering the H-3 but would like to float the prowler fist. I picked up an older U-boat for my son and he really liked it. My son-in-law is using my old donut (TD that thing just keeps on going). So i will get me another to float in.
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