I am confused about certain local laws/ WDFW regulations regarding the use of gas motors on some lakes.

For example:

The WDFW regs for Lake Lenore (Grant) states "selective gear rules, except electric motors allowed". According to the fishing regs, this means: you can not even have a gas motor attached to your floating device in the water or not.
At the boat launch at Lake Lenore there is a big brown wood sign stating county
regs for the use of PWC's (personal water craft).

I don't know about you but when I see a sign like the one at the boat launch at Lake
Lenore that tells me I can put my boat in the water and water ski behind it at 60 MPH if I
want.

On the other hand:

Steele Lake (King) there is no mention in the regs about the use of gas motors but there is a county/city ordinance sign stating "no internal combustion motors" at the lake.

I guess my question is, can you have a gas motor attached to your floating device out of
the water if there is a county/city sign stating "no internal combustion motors"????


If any of you guys have any law enforcement background and know about this county/city ordinance feel free to chime in. I would really like to know.

Just practicing a little CMA (cover my a**) before I head out to the lake.

It's funny you mentioned Steele Lake Carl. I was there last weekend and noticed a guy anchored out in the lake with a gas motor on his boat except he had it in the water. As soon as i noticed it a state patrol pulled up so i proptly jumped out and pointed out the situation and he said it was illegal. So i asked him if it could be on the boat as long as the motor does not TOUCH the water and he said yes. So i'm not sure which to believe. Anyhow if anyone of you do take it out on a lake make sure you wash your fuel vents on your boat and the area around them. These vents can pollute far more than the motor. Fuel slicks are not good.

i believe the law states equiped with a combustial engine, wether in the water or not?

It has been a few years since my dad looked into this, (only in king and snohomish counties) we have a fullsize bassoboat and wanted to be able to fish all lakes. he got alot of runaround and was told diffrent things by diffrent people who should know. ( gamies, wdfw employees and sherrif deputies) what he understood was snohomish county will allow you to have a gas motor as long it is trimmed up( we would leave the gas tanks at home too) but king was very strict about no engines at all. but as said above one of the lakes was city ordance prohibiting engines so it is very likely one of the regulating bodies will say one thing and you could get in trouble by another. it is very confusing for us who want to be legal.

I was out at Lake Wilderness today fishing from the shore. I saw three boats with gas motors hanging off the back. Two were tilted up and the other was in the water. None of the gas motors were being used, all had electrics working. I know Lake Wilderness is an "internal combustion motors prohibited" lake.
I was talking to some other fisherman about the whole "gas motor" thing and nobody seemed to know anything about the regs or cared about it.

Page 56 of the current regs 2002-2003 ,special rules section. Second row,bottom paragraph.

"Internal combustion engines prohibited" means fishing from a floating device equipped with an internal combustion engine is prohibited."Equipped with" means the motor is attached to the floating device,regardless of whether the motor is in the water.

thank you hbp, doug

Right HPB, I am familiar with that reg.

I am perplexed with the differences in WDFW regs and county/city ordinances. Wouldn't you think if there is a county/city ordinance prohibiting the use of gas motors it would be reflected if the WDFW regs, which they are not and vice versa? Example, Lake Lenore and Steele Lake as stated in my original post.

Do the WDFW regs only apply if you are fishing?

Just trying to save myself a ticket.

On those waters, like Kress Lake in Cowlitz County you cannot have a combustion motor on the boat, irregardless of if it is tilted up or not.

Some Officers will site this, some give warnings.

The idea is that a tilted motor will still leak a certain amount of fluid in the water.

I get a lot of flack for using the research boat in these listed waters because in order to push the shock boat around, I have to have a combustion motor. So if you see a WDFW research boat, the exception to this regulation is our work boats.

I know there was going to be some re-wording of the reg on some lakes. However, lakes like Battle Ground and Kress we don't want boats on them that have combustion motors attached.

stace

Stace, what do you know about lakes that do not have any WDFW sign but there is a county/city ordinance sign? Can you have one hanging off the back, but not use, if there is a county/city ordinance sign?