Article about the Griz coast guard test for guides

The argument cited about the reason they decided to enforce THIS law flies in the face of your argument. It definitely targets a specific group of people. Both groups of people I cited are using the River. Both have equal chances of inflicting injury or even death. Both are utilizing boats to navigate up and down the River. One group is REQUIRED to be licensed and is being threatened and bullied by a Federal agency using tactics such as warning a person of a $10k per incident fine, the other can do what they please. You can split the hairs any way you want to support your argument…I will just agree to disagree.

The law covers any commercial vessel on navigable waters and although a couple articles focus of the impact of guides if equally enforced will target any tuna boats operating commercially. I’m just not sure there are many tuna boats operating commercially but i could be wrong.

If the imputus is “Safety” then the law should be enforced the same way for all.

If I give a seminar on shore for $300 and take a couple guys fishing after because I have room for a couple guys…I am legal. Just as legal as a Tuna Boat full of partiers who didn’t pay a dime to be there.

Chris any Vessel for hire that carries passengers the captain needs to be licensed by the C.G. In one of BK’s posts you’ll see a shot of a sailboat on pepin undergoing C.G. inspection, the captain of this boat was licensed as he is for hire to take people sailing. The 6 pack license is good for a captain to carry up to 6 passengers. No discrimination there.

I do think and HIGHLY agree that the tuna boats create alot more damage and hassle on the river with alot less educated captains. I Believe the vessel owners of boats over 22′ should go thru some serious training and be licensed to haul in those big tuna boats. Them tuna operators spend half the amount of time on the river/water than a fisherman or guide and probably dont know half the rules or laws of boating

I don’t think you’ll find that many tuna boats ‘for hire’, but how many of these boat owners are using these boats as a venue for entertaining/discussing potential business with clients and writing off the boat on their taxes as a business expense? Either case should make them subject to the law and mandatory licensing. Besides, if I wanted to act like a terrorist I’d rather do it out of a tuna boat with all that cover over me than an open fishing boat.

You better believe that they are going to be making an example out of someone too. Just to show how “important” they are.

Do you realize that anyone even shuttling a person a short distance in a 14ft boat will require this?

So in high school, I worked at a resort on Vermilion for 3 summers. One the biggest parts of the job was shuttling guests about 500 yds across a channel because the resort didn’t have road access. So technically I would need the cert. What about the guys pulling docks out. Will they need this too? And what about the BWCA guide/outfitters. I imagine they will need it too? Heck even the scenic pontoon tour guides will need it.

It’s funny

It really is

I guess that I don’t understand why 90% is passing? where in the world is 90% the pass/ fail line?

and I can understand how hard it is to go back to school.. when I went back at age of 40, it took me the whole semester to learn how to learn again.. and 3 years into school again, I could, if I wanted to, pass tests, without reading the books.. because you learn how to “take a test”..

but the reason that people are “grandfathered” in is because its so hard to relearn how to learn..

for some, guys have jobs where they are constantly learning.. so the test, for them, is a bunny..
for others its a nightmare..

but its like math teachers.. they have a logic that causes math to be extremely easy for them.. for me, not taking a math class in over 30 years, it was like beating math into my head with a concrete block.. plus, if you use it every day, that one thing.. if you don’t use it, YOU LOSE IT..

so for us to criticize a guy who can’t pass a test, when he hasn’t taken one for 60 years.. is totally unfair..

however, and it’s a big however, years ago, I was with the famous Florida guide Buck Bray.. its only the second time that I ever paid to be with a guide,, and he put me on a 10lb bass, but that’s another story..

anyway Buck told me that he had to get his captains license back then.. and he told me that it was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life..this was in 1991…

well before I ever went back to school.. but right there in the boat, he encouraged me to go back.. and get my degree..

but he told me how hard it was for him, who had been in the NAVY, to get his Captains license..

It seems to me that this is testosterone to the max. We are all so careful to follow the laws that we pick, but not all of them. I am on the river almost daily and have had quite a few of you almost either run me over, take out my trolling or rigging lines by coming almost in my deck, or thinking I am obligated to move for you even though I have been there before you. Griz is the best and always will be in my opinion. I think you all need to go find someone else to pick on take a good look at yourselves

It was not long ago the poor Griz was on the radio spreading lies about this site and it’s members. I’m sorry, I’ve got no sympathy for the guy.

While I think it’s quite ridiculous for fishing guides, the fact is, it’s currently the law. Man up, take the test. One lesson I continue to learn over and over. LIFE ISN’T FAIR!! If you don’t like the law, start writing the proper people. That’s the best part about this country. If you get enough people on board, you can change the laws.

WHAT???????? The Griz was rippin IDO on the radio? No wonder I dont feel sorry for a guy that cant read or write because he CHOSE to drop out of school in the 9th grade No body at fault but him.

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The only problem I have with it is they come in after all these years and effectively shut down a guys livelihood for the better part of a season. You can argue it both ways, but I think the decent thing to do would have been to wait until the end of a season where it wouldn’t hurt a fulltime guide. They waited 40 years or whatever to enforce it, they couldn’t have waited another 6 months?

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The first in a series of warnings regarding impending enforcement was issued years ago. 6 to be exact if my memory serves. Dustin, Jarrad, Greg and I didn’t take the course and jump through the hoops because we suddenly felt the urge to spend 56 hours in a classroom together. There is not a single guide on the river that has not known about this for YEARS. Some chose to address it right away and put it behind them. Others pulled an ostrich, buried their head in the sand and hoped it would go away. Well, that’s a lion gnawing on your butt their big bird!

You can argue for or against these regulations but anyone that attempts to play this off like it just came out of the blue without warning and their livelihood is being affected “because they weren’t given enough warning” is filling you full of it.

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There I go taking the Mill City Fish Wrap’s word as if it was gospel. My bad.

I’d never heard of any of this until a year or two ago when James and BK started talking about it here. And I kind of pride myself on knowing/keeping up with all the regs on the river.

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Chris any Vessel for hire that carries passengers the captain needs to be licensed by the C.G. In one of BK’s posts you’ll see a shot of a sailboat on pepin undergoing C.G. inspection, the captain of this boat was licensed as he is for hire to take people sailing. The 6 pack license is good for a captain to carry up to 6 passengers. No discrimination there.

I do think and HIGHLY agree that the tuna boats create alot more damage and hassle on the river with alot less educated captains. I Believe the vessel owners of boats over 22′ should go thru some serious training and be licensed to haul in those big tuna boats. Them tuna operators spend half the amount of time on the river/water than a fisherman or guide and probably dont know half the rules or laws of boating

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Stop for a minute and assume that I know all of that. (I do.) I have no arguement with that fact.

My point…and I will say it s-l-o-w-l-y so you hear it the way I am attempting to say it…..Ready??? I would like to see any boat “Captain” licensed to operate on the same navigable waters I must be licensed to operate on.

Jesse, do you have to get a driver’s license to drive on the road? Just like a semi driver who drives “For Pay???” Or let’s just say a courier!

(And please understand I am not attacking my colleagues choices to get a Captain’s license! That is not my intent! I have all the respect in the world for them!)

So you think that anyone who operates a boat should be required to have the license. I share the same roads as semi trucks so I should have a class A license even though I am just driving down the same road not for hire to haul passengers , freight or making any money?

I believe and agree that there needs to be some kind of regulation as to whom operates a vessel and whom does not. Spend a saturday in the summer between Hudson and Stillwater on the Croix and you will wonder how half the people even figured out how to get there boat in the water.

Exactly, same argument why some people shouldn’t breed, and these same upstanding individual’s know all the NO WAKE AREAS?

TTT for our friend BK

Was in the Trib again wensday 12/30