Can someone help me out here:
In the regulations under Special Rules-Westside Rivers it states in selected areas, i.e. Stillaguamish River, North Fork that "fishing from any floating device prohibited upstream of..." Now does that mean that you can drift the river in a boat, get out of your boat and fish from shore, then keep drifting or does it mean that drifting the river with fishing gear is prohibited? I only ask because last year I got stopped by a Fish and Game Dept. guy and he cited that rule at me. I explained that I wasn't "fishing from a floating device" because it is kind of tricky to flyfish while drifting. I was simply drifting the river to get from one place to another. I noticed the same rule about the Wallace River. I have a pontoon boat so drifting a small river isn't a problem. Comments? Thanks. -Old Chum

Old Chum,
It has always been my understanding of that rule that you can indeed use a boat to travel within a river that has those guidelines, the only limit being that you cant fish from it.

See you out there,

Gusty

I agree with Gusty ,we have used a boat on the N.F. and the Pill

That is the way that I understand it too. The Elwha is like thatand I have seen that many times. If he gave you a ticket he must have bben on a power trip and needed to do give a ticket. As long as you are drifting down and not fishing from you boat you should be ok. If you do get a ticket for some odd reason then take it to court and explain that you shouldn't have gotten that ticket. Tight liines.
Chris

Thanks. I thought I was probably right but then started to second guess myself. I think the officer on the Stilly was really lookin hard to give a ticket. He wanted to to know where I had parked, why I was "fishing from a floating craft..." After a significant amount of discussion he finally said "well, I guess I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time" and that really steamed me since I hadn't been doing anything wrong and he implied that he would ticket me in the future if I did the same thing again. Anyway. -Old Chum

Chum, too bad about your experience, however it is nice to hear about some enforcement on the NF.

My understanding is that you are totally in the right on this. If you are using a pontoon boat, and have fins on, the officer may have some grounds to think you are stretching the rules when out of sight of the road.

The best defense for something like this is to have a copy of the regs with you. You then ask the officer to "help you understand the situation", as you were unable to find any language that indicated that it was illegal to drift to a spot to fish.

By doing this, you establish that, a) you have a copy of and have read the regulations, b) that you will hold the officer to the wording of the regs, and not his interpretation of them, and c) you are open to having your understanding clarified.

This way, even if you get a ticket, you look a lot more like a responsible guy when you get to convincing a judge.

I've met most of the officers around here, and I think they are usually reasonable, when presented with a reasonable case. They just see a lot of bad actors, and I think have reason to assume the worst about a lot of society.