St. Croix No Wake – How Fast Too Fast?

On Saturday, June 21st I was boating upstream on the St. Croix about a half mile south of the Kinni and I got stopped by the Pierce County, Wisconsin for making a “wake”. There were two young guys in the boat that I assume were deputies and they asked me if I knew the St. Croix was a no wake zone. I told them yes I did and that’s why I was going 5 mph. There was no current where I was so the 5 mph is a true speed against the water. They said I was making a wake and I disputed that. There was a light chop on the water but if you looked hard enough, yes, I suppose you could make out a 4″ high ripple behind my boat amongst the chop. My GPS speed was right around 5 mph. They took my registration, checked the fire extinguisher, jackets, and throwable and wrote me warning. This was really starting to urine me off so I asked them how fast I could go and one of them says, “No faster than necessary to maintain steerage.” So I ask, ‘So if I can maintain control at 1 mph that means I can’t go faster than 1 mph?’. He said that’s right. So I asked them where they put in and he said they came from Prescott. I then told them they better get heading back because it’s already 2:00 p.m. and Prescott is about 6 miles down stream so they won’t be back until 8:00 p.m.

Why were these two guys such over zealous dinks? I mean really…. 1 mph. I told them they need to use a little common sense. If they need a reason to check to see if I was drinking, just pull up near me and ask me a question or two. I know law enforcement officer have a tough, dangerous job at times but why harass a guy that’s just trying to catch a few fish. There’s absolutely no danger of damage to property or shorelines from 5 mph.

Thank goodness the DNR guys from both WI and MN are good and knowledgeable. I’ve never had an experience like this from one of them.

Boone,
They couldn’t have been too big of jerks if they only gave you a warning. I also wouldn’t have the stones to argue with them either. Talk about putting a target on your boat.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/boatwater/nowake/index.html

No-wake defined:
Slow no-wake speed means the slowest possible speed to maintain steerage, but no greater than 5 mph.

Yes, Personally it is ridiculous to expect anyone to go 1-mph, although at 5-mph some boats may create a wake and still not be steerable.

Didn’t see them pulling over any cabin cruisers that making a wake did you?

Hopefully we won’t have to worry about that after 7/9. Appears it goes under 683

Didn’t see them pulling over any cabin cruisers that making a wake did you?

Jesse,

No… Never. In all over 15 years on that stretch of river I’ve never seen them stop one single cruiser in a no wake zone. I asked these two guys why they will never stop a cruiser and they insisted they will. I told them that, no, you guys will never stop a cruiser. Granted a 30 ft. cruiser can go considerably faster than a 17 foot boat and not make a noticeable ripple but they’re clearly going faster than necessary to “maintain steerage”. I wonder what’s behind this. Does their boss (the sheriff) explicitly tell them not to harass the big boats knowing these guys obviously have money?

Another question… can a Wisconsin deputy issue citations in Minnesota waters or vise-versa for violations such as no-wake, navigation lights,etc. I know the conservation officers from either state can for fishing violations but what about boating violations.

Boone

When do you think the river levels fall below no wake regulations. So itchen to fish the river.

No wake has been lifted in looking at the NOAA River levels.

The Wookiee brings good news… I am more than ready to get my boat running on the river at “light speed!”

May the fish be with you.

turk