This may be a stupid question, but are personal floatation devices
necessary when using a float tube?
Lane
On Fri, 4 May 2001, Kent Lufkin wrote:
> Was finally able to sneak away for a couple hours of fishing
> yesterday evening at Langlois Lake in nearby Carnation. Took my
> pontoon boat and worked the east shore up past the outlet, persuading
> a dozen or so happy (hapless?) planters to temporarily impale
> themselves on a #18 BWO.
>
> I didn't pay much attention to the rest of the fishers trolling
> hardware from boats out in the middle until one approached and the
> occupant hailed me. He identified himself as a WDFW enforcement
> officer and asked to see my personal floatation device.
>
> Fortunately, I was wearing my SOSuspenders and showed him. He also
> asked to see my license and to know which vehicle in the lot was
> mine. He radioed his partner to verify that it had a new yellow
> Access Stewardship sticker on the rear window.
>
> We chatted for a while and he told me they had made a list of parked
> vehicles without stickers and were in the process of finding their
> owners and writing citations. He said they're under orders to step up
> enforcement and that he'd already written more citations than in all
> of last year. (Guess that's one way to pay for the licensing
> machines!)
>
> After he left me, he found the owner of a stickerless truck in a
> nearby rowboat who also had his young son on board. Not only was the
> son not wearing a PFD, there were none in the boat. The poor guy
> protested that he had his yellow sticker still attached to his
> license, but his complaints didn't help.
>
> No yellow sticker on the truck; child under age 12 not wearing a PFD;
> no PFDs on board: cha-ching - a $100 ticket.
>
> On the way back in, he picked up another boat, likewise without
> floatation devices. No PFDs on board: cha-ching - a $30 ticket.
>
> When I pulled out, the wardens had just left, leaving the two boat
> owners grumbling about how the guys could really ruin a good time
> fishing.
>
> First time I'd ever been checked and thought I'd better share the
> experience with the list.
>
> Kent Lufkin
>
>
>
