Canada question — booze in boat

You cannot have any for shore lunch unless you are at your campsite,where your tent is located.

One of the many reasons I love fly in remote trips.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael C. Winther wrote:</div>
you’re also allowed to bring enough with you out in the boat each day to consume during a shore lunch.

I’ve heard this a hundred times and it feels like the biggest urban legend ever. Ever seen that actually written somewhere?

We were told by COs in Ontario that you may be ticketed by them or the OPP(Ontario Provincial Police) if beer is in your cooler. Open or not. No matter if you have had any to drink or not.

Related/unrelated…

It’s legal to buy and smoke grass there.

Just went up to the Nestor Falls area and a buddy who loves his weed got a kick out of stopping at the dispensary in Fort Frances. I had just as much fun watching him run around like a little kid in a candy store

You can have an “open” bag of weed in the boat, but it needs to be packed away in “luggage” and in it’s original “container” (it comes in heavy duty zip-lock bags).

Not sure it that’s your cup of tea, but another option if it is.

Obviously you still need a sober driver, but you’re not going to jail or get a fine for having an open bag in the boat if it’s packed away. Just don’t get caught doing it “in” the boat.

As for beer/booze in a boat or snowmobile, we “gamble a little”. Haven’t lost yet, but we keep it under control and try to be discreet. One day we’ll get caught, but as long as we’re not legally impaired it will still be worth the $250 CAD fine (that’s like $7 USD) lol j/k

Edit: just saw that you’re crossing through remote (I likely know where, tell Mike I said hi)

That portage let’s you bend the rules (motors), talk with your resort if they’ve ever had any issues with cans/glass passing through.

Attachments:

1. 

   PXL_20230103_1906402162-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   Screenshot_20230130-221550.png
   

My 16yo kid will be along, so we’ll be keeping it pretty tame.

I’m hearing word that boats traveling up the saganaga corridor to Canada can be exempt from the “no glass or cans” rule if they travel directly to their destination and don’t stop in the bwca. So that would make it easier to have unbroken bottle seals.

Funny side story to this topic. We were in Canada one year and we asked a local at the beer store up there about the law. He explained the loophole with no open containers in the boat. He said the trick was to sink your can as soon as you were done and then you would never have an open container. He smiled and said, “drink em and sink em, it’s the Canadian way”.

3Rivers wrote:

He explained the loophole with no open containers in the boat. He said the trick was to sink your can as soon as you were done and then you would never have an open container. He smiled and said, “drink em and sink em, it’s the Canadian way”.

It’s not a loop hole, it’s called littering. And it’s not funny.

Huntindave wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>3Rivers wrote:</div>
He explained the loophole with no open containers in the boat. He said the trick was to sink your can as soon as you were done and then you would never have an open container. He smiled and said, “drink em and sink em, it’s the Canadian way”.

It’s not a loop hole, it’s called littering. And it’s not funny.

Sorry, didn’t mean to trigger you. He made us laugh, he was convinced he had it all figured out, which obviously he didn’t. Now that I think about it, a lot of things about Canada make me laugh.

3Rivers wrote:

He smiled and said, “drink em and sink em, it’s the Canadian way”.

Made me laugh, all though you have to read it in Canadian

Made me laugh, but I know how to take things lightly and not be as serious as possible with every comment read

There’s one of these signs every other mile on Canada highways… I guess they need to start putting them on lakes too

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2023-01-31-110605.jpg
   

From land we boat in about 10 miles. I always leave mine in the case un opened I figured that way it is easier for the border crossing to count and to transport. I leave whole until I get to the island then place in the cooler with ice. I dont know if that is totally legal but thats what I do.

The one time I did a fly in the last thing we were worried about is getting busted drinking beer in the boat. it’s a wilderness after all.

Back when I was younger, about 25 or so years ago, we were on a remote drive to lake in Ontario by Sioux Narrows and had just finished our 5 day trip. We were on the 3 hour drive out, basically down a ATV trail, headed back to the main lodge. We could do about 10-15 mph on this trail, so me and my buddy had a few cold ones in the cab with us for the long hot dusty trail ride out. His brothers were in a rig right behind us, doing the same. We crested a hill and *BANG* there is a K5 Blazer, lights going. with a Canadian DNR dude in it We scramble shoving the cans, part full under the seats and to hide, my buddy throws the cooler in the back seat.. the DNR says, what’s your names.. we told him and he said he had a report that there was somebody on “our lake” that was not supposed to be there. We told him we seen a couple guys in a canoe the day before.. he said, that was them and are they still there ? We told him we didn’t see them today. He asked to see our license & fish and he checked them all… he asked to see the cooler my buddy threw in the back seat.. he inspected it moving the beers over, to see if we were hiding any filets… he really couldn’t have cared less about the couple of beers we were having, he wanted to make sure we were the guests that the outfitter said should be there and not the other trespassers. He thanked us and pulled off to the side of the trail to let us pass… we didn’t have another sip of beer the rest of the way out !!! (we dodged a bullet there)

On one of our Canadian Trips. We got checked and they asked to see out license, to look at the Barbs of the hooks on our rod, and asked if we had any alcohol or Drugs in the boat. We had our license, Barbs were pinched, and No alcohol or Drugs and were good to go. 2 other members of our party in another boat also got checked. They went 0-3. They got followed back to the resort we were staying at and were able to show them their license. They received a citation for the least expensive violation ( Think not having their license on them ) and were just warned about the other two. The guy was really pissed off. Personally I think he caught a hell of a break. The Total of all 3 of those could have been really costly.

tswoboda wrote:

There’s one of these signs every other mile on Canada highways… I guess they need to start putting them on lakes too

That cant be in Canada. The signs have to be in Canadian and French right?

fishthumper wrote:

The guy was really pissed off.

The guy who got the small fine and 2 warnings?? Jeez.

I’ve had a lot of really good encounters with Ontario and Manitoba CO’s and no bad experiences. I’ve questioned them on some of the regulations I maybe wasn’t following to the T and I’ve gotten pretty much the same answer from all of them… As long as you’re not a jackwagon *I* won’t ticket you for that, but the next guy certainly could.

Riverrat wrote:

That cant be in Canada. The signs have to be in Canadian and French right?

“Canadian and French” LOL

Those symbols are just as much French as they are English

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2023-01-31-110605-1.jpg
   

I’ve become a bit wiser with age, but in my younger years we would blatantly disregard the open container in the boat law while on our annual Canada trip. The stance was that we weren’t getting wasted and would split the fines if/when an issue came up. Stupid? Yes…but we were all young once.

To this day in maybe a dozen times up there to the same chain, I bet I have not seen 10 other boats total. We did run into a CO in a similar situation to Big_G’s one summer who stopped us and checked everything on a gravel road 5 minutes from the cabin as we were heading to a little puddle pond to catch bass. We had a cooler in the boat with maybe a dozen beers and some food that he had us open as well. He never mentioned a thing about the beer, and just warned us that the landing on the little puddle lake was filled with huge rocks.

We were told by COs in Ontario that you may be ticketed by them or the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) if beer is in your cooler. Open or not. No matter if you have had any to drink or not.

if you ask an LEO directly, of course they’re going to tell you to follow the letter of the law. and also of course if you encounter an LEO, they’re going to use their discretion in how they enforce that same law.

the most likely enforcement action happens when the person is a jerk to the officer, lies, or they have other violations such as overlimits, no licenses, lack of safety gear, etc. make sure your stuff is in order and don’t be a jerk. law enforcement isn’t trying to stop anyone from having a good time, they’re trying to make sure everyone is safe. having 2 beers in the cooler along with our shore lunch fixings doesn’t raise the “drunk boating” alarms.

dirtywater wrote:

My 16yo kid will be along, so we’ll be keeping it pretty tame.

I’m hearing word that boats traveling up the saganaga corridor to Canada can be exempt from the “no glass or cans” rule if they travel directly to their destination and don’t stop in the bwca. So that would make it easier to have unbroken bottle seals.

Off topic but, when you’re on Sag, try to give the canoes some courtesy space when passing near them. They will greatly appreciate. You’d think Sag is the size of a swimming pool based on how close many of the motor boats pass the canoes.

Huntindave wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>3Rivers wrote:</div>
He explained the loophole with no open containers in the boat. He said the trick was to sink your can as soon as you were done and then you would never have an open container. He smiled and said, “drink em and sink em, it’s the Canadian way”.

It’s not a loop hole, it’s called littering. And it’s not funny.

Is it littering if you don’t get caught?Keeping the cans is denying hidey-holes for bottom dwelling critters.On the ‘Sippi,those items may get you the Holy Grail of walleye bait,willowcats.

Years ago,a guy I fish with got pulled over in KY for flickering taillights.When the LEO walked-up to vehicle,he flashed the light at the back seat and seen some empty cans from a few weeks prior,and asked him if he was drinking beer.There were quite a few cans,and buddy did pass field test.But LEO wasn’t convinced and popped a breathalyzer test and was just over legal limit.I told him to never leave empties in vehicle,chug and chuck them.Aluminum pickers appreciate them.

You cannot have any Alcohol in your boat unless going directly from a launching site to your camp/Resort. You do not stop along the way and fish. Nothing for shore lunch unless as others have stated that your are at the camp you are sleeping in. The no transporting of empties is what causes Canadians to do the sink em method. I have been stopped by the OPP several times in the boat and they were looking for alcohol first, then they asked about what we ate for shore lunch and what our names were as they had a list of the names on the bags of frozen fillets in our cabin. We told them pike they said good as you cannot have fish shore lunch of walleye if your limits in the freezer. I never freeze any walleyes till the last day and that day we buy sandwich shore lunch from the Resort.Then they proceeded to ask my kids if I was drinking at shore lunch. They were quite aggressive and visibly disappointed that we had done nothing wrong. I only have drinks in camp. Its not worth the hassle plus ITs hard enough to control the boat find the fish help others being sober. Also I have had several friends on remote fly ins get checked by float planes for fish and alcohol in the boat.

Mwal

mwal wrote:

You cannot have any Alcohol in your boat unless going directly from a launching site to your camp/Resort. You do not stop along the way and fish. Nothing for shore lunch unless as others have stated that your are at the camp you are sleeping in. The no transporting of empties is what causes Canadians to do the sink em method. I have been stopped by the OPP several times in the boat and they were looking for alcohol first, then they asked about what we ate for shore lunch and what our names were as they had a list of the names on the bags of frozen fillets in our cabin. We told them pike they said good as you cannot have fish shore lunch of <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye if your limits in the freezer. I never freeze any walleyes till the last day and that day we buy sandwich shore lunch from the Resort.Then they proceeded to ask my kids if I was drinking at shore lunch. They were quite aggressive and visibly disappointed that we had done nothing wrong. I only have drinks in camp. Its not worth the hassle plus ITs hard enough to control the boat find the fish help others being sober. Also I have had several friends on remote fly ins get checked by float planes for fish and alcohol in the boat.

Mwal

Curious what year and where this was? I’ve never been checked by OPP or Mounties, only MNR CO’s, but always heard the others are not near as pleasant.

Its funny. The guy I go to Canada with has been going at least twice a year for probably 25+ years. He said prior to me joining him he had never seen or been stopped by any law enforcement. In the 5 years since I’ve joined him we have been checked 3 times. He blames it all on me. Says I’ve got bad JuJu. He’s also been stopped way more often in Minnesota as well since I started fishing with him. Maybe I am bad luck !!!

Been biting my tongue on this, but maybe if Canada didn’t have such stupid laws their Citizens wouldn’t be sinking beer cans in the lake. You should be allowed to have alcohol in the boat as long as the driver is not impaired, period.

You can go buy cannabis and legally get high, but yet there is mass confusion about a simple transport of alcohol in a boat. Just ridiculous.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>dirtywater wrote:</div>
My 16yo kid will be along, so we’ll be keeping it pretty tame.

I’m hearing word that boats traveling up the saganaga corridor to Canada can be exempt from the “no glass or cans” rule if they travel directly to their destination and don’t stop in the bwca. So that would make it easier to have unbroken bottle seals.

Off topic but, when you’re on Sag, try to give the canoes some courtesy space when passing near them. They will greatly appreciate. You’d think Sag is the size of a swimming pool based on how close many of the motor boats pass the canoes.

I always try to be respectful and give plenty of space. Then again, sometimes there is less usable space than you’d think. for example you have a group of 4 boats spread across the seagull river, there’s really no choice but to go between them. Other times there are so many hazards around, you have no choice but to pass closer than you’d like.

We stay at a cousins Island on lake of the woods on the canadian side. He has been going to the island since the 60’s. He said in all those years he has had his island inspected once by the “mountee’s” as he called them and he said they went over everything with the fine tooth comb. There only problem with him was they were using the wrong type of trap to catch crawfish.

We have been stopped on the Water twice while visiting the island and this boat just wanted to measure and sex our fish. They were very pleasant and moved on. never even checked our liscense or anything.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Been biting my tongue on this, but maybe if Canada didn’t have such stupid laws their Citizens wouldn’t be sinking beer cans in the lake. You should be allowed to have alcohol in the boat as long as the driver is not impaired, period.

You can go buy cannabis and legally get high, but yet there is mass confusion about a simple transport of alcohol in a boat. Just ridiculous.

I’m not saying I disagree with you at all. But their country, Their rules. Either play by them, or don’t go to Canada. I’m sure we have plenty of laws here that they think are just as stupid. I’d say the same to them, then don’t come here and visit. Just because you don’t agree with a law doesn’t mean you can break it without suffering the consequences. We bring our limit of booze into Canada each year as well as purchase lots more while we are there. They are not saying you can not drink – Just not while in a boat.

fishthumper wrote:

I’m not saying I disagree with you at all. But their country, Their rules. Either play by them, or don’t go to Canada.

I’m well aware.

Totally separate discussion.

My point is the utter confusion about being able to simply TRANSPORT alcohol via boat. I think they know it’s confusing and like it that way. Gives a whole lot of discretionary power to those enforcing. But very likely also contributing to the drink em and sink em mentality they have created