When Grace Fails

[Quillback]

9 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

I was handed a ticket by the water patrol while carrying a bag of fish to weigh in for the same thing. It was a great moment that the whole crowd got to witness. Luckily we won and had big bass. But I never ran right up on one again. 

Buddy of mine got a ticket for a wake in a no wake zone.  He researched what the law was in Arkansas as far a no wake and it says nothing about a wake, it says no wake is a speed less than 5 miles an hour.  He took it to court, and as speed was not indicated on the ticket. the judge threw it out.

I believe MO law is idle speed in a no wake zone.  Idle speed being defined as the minimum speed needed to maintain steerage.

Neither MO or AR define no wake having anything to do with a visible wake.

[fishinwrench]

4 hours ago, Quillback said:

Neither MO or AR define no wake having anything to do with a visible wake

 

Reasonable boaters should understand. 

 And those that don't, do deserve to be ticketed.....or in my case SHOT AT !   😅

[tjm]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

MO law is idle speed in a no wake zone.  Idle speed being defined as the minimum speed needed to maintain steerage.

But like the Reduced Speed in small towns, you'd need to be at that minimum speed before entering the no wake zone? 

[Quillback]

6 minutes ago, tjm said:

But like the Reduced Speed in small towns, you'd need to be at that minimum speed before entering the no wake zone? 

I don't know.  That would make sense to me, but the law itself creates some gray area.   

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

I don't know.  That would make sense to me, but the law itself creates some gray area.   

 

The last I knew the "law" states that a boater is "responsible for his wake".    What's "gray" about that ? 

[Quillback]

19 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

 

The last I knew the "law" states that a boater is "responsible for his wake".    What's "gray" about that ? 

Nothing, but that is not what I was referring to.  

[slabseeker]

3 hours ago, tjm said:

But like the Reduced Speed in small towns, you'd need to be at that minimum speed before entering the no wake zone?

Good point. Or in the case of the Winona cop who told me as he was writing me a ticket on Hwy. 60, at least a half mile before entering the reduced speed zone.

[WestCentralFisher]

19 hours ago, slabseeker said:

Good point. Or in the case of the Winona cop who told me as he was writing me a ticket on Hwy. 60, at least a half mile before entering the reduced speed zone.

Once, while staying in an AirBNB while fly-fishing in the driftless region, I was written a parking ticket for parking along the snow route, even though no snow was in evidence and there were no signs. 

I went in to the city hall/police station/courthouse/administrative building (it was a very small town) to pay it. A police officer greeted me as I walked in. He seemed polite and reasonable enough, so I asked him how come I was being written a ticket for parking along the snow route when it was unmarked and there was no snow. He told me that it was in effect all winter. I asked about signage, and he told me it was removed last year.

When I asked why, he straight up forgot to lie, and told me it was so they could write more tickets to out of towners. It was in the morning and presumably the coffee hadn't hit yet. He then sighed loudly and said, ok, I'll talk to the prosecutor about getting this dropped. This being a very small town, that meant going to the next room and me overhearing him getting his butt chewed for being too honest. The ticket did get dropped, though. 

[Flysmallie]

On 2/19/2026 at 9:54 AM, tjm said:

But like the Reduced Speed in small towns, you'd need to be at that minimum speed before entering the no wake zone? 

I don't know but in my case I was told that my boat needed to be off plane before I got to the bouy. 

But at the same time I needed to be inside those bouys by a certain time and I was cutting it close. Hell there was a bass in the livewell that was still attached to a rod. Our last fish was caught within five minutes of end of fishing. I was still a couple of miles from the marina. 

The worst part of the whole deal was my wife, girlfriend at the time, was at the weigh in. We went to dinner that night at the home of the folks that owned the marina. Mr. Water Patrol was there, as usual, and gave me crap about it all night long. 

I didn't know it yet, but that was the beginning of the end of my tournament fishing. Events that happened that day sealed the deal. And the ticket wasn't part of it. Fishing for money does bad things to people. 

[tjm]

2 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

Fishing for money does bad things to people. 

No personal experience, but I am not surprised at that.