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| Eh, if you can afford $300,000 for a pontoon boat, guessing gas costs are not a big worry. When I lived in Fond du Lac, knew several engineers who worked at Merc. Would like to hear their thoughts on that giant motor. |
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Posts: 159
| I haven't seen a wake boat yet this season here in MN that's actually wake surfing. The water has been too cold. Its not even 70 degrees here yet, even on smaller metro lakes.
I saw one guy water skiing but he was wearing a wet suit. Most people are not willing to "swim" in the water until it reaches a minimum of 70 degrees. Cooler weather and rain every few days has been a blessing. I'm sure that will eventually change. |
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Posts: 1267
Location: E. Tenn | That motor is definitely a different animal..
If money is no object why mount just one? lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUAJRv27r-0 |
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Have seen photos of off shore fishing boats with 3, 4 of them. The engineering of the transom must be something. |
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Posts: 357
Location: Long Prairie, Minnesota | My son and I went out fishing yesterday, got on the water a little before 5 and it was a zoo. Trying to get to the first spot I wanted to fish and sure enough here come Captain Johnny in his wake boat with 3 girls and two other young men with him, cruising just fast enough to make 3 foot rollers and right in everyone's way, so I dropped the hammer and went 50 yards off his bow to get around him. Of course I got the 1 finger salute because I was in his way. Then he proceeded to follow me and make waves around the boat when we started to fish. The lake I usually fish on, which was the one last night, has had a few wake boats, but this year it seems like they all gave birth to triplets with retarded drivers. Then, the retarded drivers seemingly invited their cousins, you know, the ones with the 22 foot pontoon, 300 on the back and a sound system you can hear all the way across the 3000 acre lake. Wasn't a spot on the lake we fished where you couldn't hear music coming from a wake boat or a pontoon. When we finally decided to head home, we got to the landing and one of the cousins came in with their pontoon, music cranked. Must have been 8-10 on that ship and all but the driver were so #*^@ drunk they could hardly walk off the dock at the landing. I just drove away shaking my head. |
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Posts: 3868
| Wake board boat deterrent. You can have one for free.
Edited by Ranger 6/9/2024 6:05 PM
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Posts: 3868
| That was the prototype. Here's the latest model.
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Posts: 205
| The Town of Presque Isle had a leadership shakeup las fall after the elections and recently passed an ordinance banning wake boats on all town waters with the exception of Oxbow. It appears special consideration was given to a property owner on that lake. The Town of Winchester has also passed a similar ordinance as shown in the attached picture. It should be noted that neither town has the ability to enforce the two ordinances. Presque Isle disbanded their municipal court some years back and the Sheriffs dept will not enforce the local ordinance.
These ordinances were passed over the objections of the city attorneys as they are not likely to survive a court challenge and represent a significant financial liability to the towns. The ordinances appear to be poorly written.
The Wilderness Alliance has advised their members to take photos of the offending watercraft and turn them over to the town. I suspect this will only lead to on the water conflicts and will not result in any enforcement.
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| Vilas County towns as well as Oneida are considering or have passed ordinances that sound similar. There is a retired attorney who has been helping lead the effort. Enforcement is an issue that keeps getting brought up. Some feel that just posting said ordinance will discourage wake boaters. I think it could end up being a real s*** show.
I know a DNR warden and he said they get calls all the time but has to tell folks that if it is not a state law they cannot enforce the ordinance. Same with property damage, as happens when wake boats come close to shore and damage lake front or wash kayaks and other craft into the water. Guy who lives on a 300 acre lake near me has always stored his kayaks on his dock, couple feet above the water. But last year a visiting wake boat blew them off and he had to go wading to retrieve and search the bottom for the paddles. He claims the wake was at least two feet over his dock when it hit. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | ONE wake boat kept my Lund bobbing like a cork from 7 AM until we left the area on Minocqua this morning 2 hours later. Back and forth in Stacks Bay, seemingly unaware of all that other water out there. I came up with a couple of new swear words today.
This thing hit a Violent Strike Lures spinnerbait and literally tried to tear up the inside of the boat while I was trying to get the hooks out. Biggest bowfin I've ever seen, I should have measured it I guess. We had to go to a car wash to swamp out the inside of the boat, my clothes look like I lost a fight, and before getting it back in the water it spattered Sue in the face. She was not impressed..
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| Dogfish may be primitive and ugly, but they fight. Grew up catching them on cranberry ditches in central WI. My dad carried a side cutter and cut the hooks rather than try and unhook them.
Edited by North of 8 6/15/2024 4:14 PM
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Posts: 3868
| sworrall - 6/15/2024 4:17 PM
ONE wake boat kept my Lund bobbing like a cork from 7 AM until we left the area on Minocqua this morning 2 hours later. Back and forth in Stacks Bay, seemingly unaware of all that other water out there. I came up with a couple of new swear words today.
This thing hit a Violent Strike Lures spinnerbait and literally tried to tear up the inside of the boat while I was trying to get the hooks out. Biggest bowfin I've ever seen, I should have measured it I guess. We had to go to a car wash to swamp out the inside of the boat, my clothes look like I lost a fight, and before getting it back in the water it spattered Sue in the face. She was not impressed..
When I was a 11y/o I sometimes got permission to stay out after bedtime to wade the spring shoreline with a cheapo flashlight and a homemade spear (half a cane pole tipped with a heavy frog gig). Fast forward 20 years and I would simply tie a basket with a couple live bluegill to the end of the pier and walk out every hour or so and shoot at the dogfish nosing the basket with a bow. In between the ticket was to use a trolling motor on a duck boat with a trident attached to the end of one of those extendo aluminum poles used to remove lightbulbs. Speared so many I learned to use a homemade thumper to knock the fish silly and into a plastic tub. In those days a dogfish was useful only to eat the eggs and fry of the fish we wanted to catch. So, it was a catch and kill deal. Wouldn't do it now but boy was that fun back in the day.
Oh, really big dogfish? Hit them hard and try to pin them to the lake bottom. When they get out from under the pressure let go of the spear because I had a 25' piece of light rope tied to the spear and my wrist. Chase the spear. The very biggest often got away, eventually tore out.
Edited by Ranger 6/15/2024 7:29 PM
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Posts: 2269
Location: SE, WI. |
sworrall - 6/15/2024 3:17 PM ONE wake boat kept my Lund bobbing like a cork from 7 AM until we left the area on Minocqua this morning 2 hours later. Back and forth in Stacks Bay, seemingly unaware of all that other water out there. I came up with a couple of new swear words today. This thing hit a Violent Strike Lures spinnerbait and literally tried to tear up the inside of the boat while I was trying to get the hooks out. Biggest bowfin I've ever seen, I should have measured it I guess. We had to go to a car wash to swamp out the inside of the boat, my clothes look like I lost a fight, and before getting it back in the water it spattered Sue in the face. She was not impressed.. Maybe a better alternative would have been to leave the bait in its mouth and cut the line, since the bait probably didn’t cost you much  ;)…..or, leave the net in the water, extracting hooks, and the pliers slip and a few gills accidentally attach to the pliers;) ;)….just sayin! JD
Edited by jdsplasher 6/16/2024 5:46 AM
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | My guess is that one won't survive. I'd worry about losing that much blood myself.
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Posts: 227
| There is a pretty good article in this month's In-Fisherman on Dogfish. It brought back of memories of destroyed spinner baits, and some hands that bled more than most encounters with muskies teeth. |
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Posts: 159
| A local or township ordinance isn't legally enforceable. Any law that prohibits a specific watercraft like a wake boat will need to be addressed at the state level, not a local one.
This is slippery slope too. Townships and lake associations could go further and start limiting access. We do want the lakes to remain open to public use. Just not the ones who are ruining it for everyone else. |
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| gimruis - 6/17/2024 2:52 PM
A local or township ordinance isn't legally enforceable. Any law that prohibits a specific watercraft like a wake boat will need to be addressed at the state level, not a local one.
This is slippery slope too. Townships and lake associations could go further and start limiting access. We do want the lakes to remain open to public use. Just not the ones who are ruining it for everyone else.
A town ordinance can be enforced but it would require a town constable, with law enforcement powers. Enforcing dog leash laws is a simple example. The problem is that few towns have constables. Whether the ordinance is constitutional becomes the issue. I think it is going to be a real mess, and money will be spent by both sides. |
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Location: NW WI | Not saying this as an argumentive statement. But truly curious.
What's the legal difference between a city or township ordinance as shown above and a watercraft speed limit ordinance or a tolled landing? |
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| The legal authority of various units of government is typically set by the state. In WI for instance, townships can no longer have ordinances governing water front usage. They used to be able to set minimum shoreline footage for homes that was greater than the state's. What a city/township/county can do may be spelled out in state law, or it is established through legal precedent. The later is where these wake boat ordinances is probably headed. There will likely be lawsuits and the court decision will be the deciding factor, unless the legislature takes action.
(One note on enforcement of town ordinances, I did find where some towns contract with the county sheriff's office to provide enforcement of town ordinances.)
Edited by North of 8 6/18/2024 7:43 AM
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Posts: 159
| Good video about potential legislation in Wisconsin on these. I live in MN and I would support this 100%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prb9mgfARXI
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| Well done report. One note in the story that I could relate to is how far that big wake travels. Couple years ago, for the first time I was fishing while a wake boat was on the lake. I was quite some distance from them, well over 200 yards. Because of that I wasn't really expecting much impact but the waves did travel that far and were substantial. I and the boat were in water less than 10' deep, so maybe that made things worse. But I had seen a couple kayakers head for shore when the wake surfing started.
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Posts: 760
| You can never assume to believe you seen it all. This afternoon , was sitting on my deck when I heard the roar of a powerful boat(s) about to pass by. Two idiots were racing in their pontoons, not sure of the size but both looked like they were over 20ft. Of course massive outboards on both. But that was not the crazy part. Both slowed down and began doing donuts! In these huge pontoons!! It's been crazy on my chain this year. Kdawg |
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| The horsepower race with pontoons is one of those things I can't quite wrap mind around. (I have a pontoon, with a 90hp motor)
We went to a birthday party on Friday. My wife's sister lives on the Wolf River and we went for a little cruise on the Wolf in their pontoon. Great afternoon, did not see another boat in an hour on the river. One of my brothers in law who was along for the ride mentioned how when he was on the Eagle River chain recently, saw a pontoon at a marina with twin 500hp outboards. Now, he is a big NASCAR fan, worked on heavy equipment for the biggest CAT dealer in the Midwest for 40+ years. He appreciates big motors, etc., but he was just shaking his head. A thousand horsepower on a pontoon on the Eagle River chain? |
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Posts: 527
Location: NW WI | N8:
It ain't no different than any other large unnecessary luxury expense. If it's not logical or functional: Its for attention. " Ooooo Look what I have" or shear ignorant spending or a passion for collecting with a large expendable income. Look no further than automobiles. Not any different. Yes, there is a place and time where said "tool" has a function or can be utilized. But those circumstances are slim to nill and typically the owner doesn't and/or cant utilize its potential capabilities. |
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