IL Kayaks

[BigAbe75]

So... at Shelbyville @mattschepker informed me that just by showing up at the event the collective JetBoaters.net group had their hands in my wallet already.

That turned out to be true!

Tuesday I'm expecting delivery of 2 youth kayaks, of the same type that my kids were able to borrow from @jcyamaharider and @jcyamahariders wife. Green.

We ended up buying them from Amazon for $98 each w free shipping. We found an online deal at Dick's that was a little cheaper, but they wanted $80 shipping each.

Anyway, do I need to license these things or anything? We're just going to paddle around in coves, not really any real rafting. My mother in law seems to think we need to license them, and pay some sort of fee to use them on our lake and is generally trying to poo-poo the whole enterprise.

'Course, she doesn't quite get it. We've found our people!! And, this is what we want to do with our time.

I did find something on IL DNR site that mentioned a $6 sticker that should be purchased annually. And can be obtained anywhere a fishing license can be purchased.

Anybody else have any input?

Thanks!

 

[zipper]

I do not know about IL. fees, but in VT., if there is no motor on it, no registration is necessary. That includes kayaks, canoes and sailboats. I have never had to register my 14' canoe. I would not like to think that a state would charge me a fee to register my 11' paddle board which is bigger than those kayaks, even for only $6.

 

[RiverRat]

Same thing happened after our first time to Shelbyville. In Wisconsin if it's non motorized and under a certain length, I believe 16 ft, no registration is required.

It's looking like there might be enough of these youth kayaks next year that we'll have to open another class of races at Shelbyville!

And just for the hilarity of it, we can have the adults try racing them, but you need to be a minimum of 200 lbs to make em extra tippy

 

[BigAbe75]

And just for the hilarity of it, we can have the adults try racing them, but you need to be a minimum of 200 lbs to make em extra tippy

Awesome idea! After watching my 2 kids on one, I'm fairly certain it'll be fully submerged with my 300lbs.

Here's the info I found. It's a short read.

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/boating/pages/waterusagestamps.aspx

I don't think I'm going to worry about it this year. We've probably only got a few more outings anyway with school starting 8/15.

I'll re-evaluate for next season.

 

[Bill D]

In a crackpot scheme to extort a little more money from their residents, Illinois came up with this stupid stamp idea a few years back. We were asked about them by others one time while we were floating down the river in tubes, but we never purchased them. I don't know of anyone who has purchased them or been fined for not having the stamps.

I'm sure it would cost way more to enforce such a stupid rule than you would ever return at $6 a piece. Needless to say, we were less than excited about it when they came up with the idea.

 

[BobJohnson]

I guess it depends on your area of this great state of Illinois $$$.. I'm outside of Chicago and around here you need the sticker. I have a dingy I take out in some lagoons to fish on and the place is big with kayaks and there's patrols checking at ramps for fishing license and water usage stamps/stickers. You get the usage thing anywhere you can buy a fishing license. They use the same printer. I get mine at a Dicks sporting goods. Need manufacturer of kayak, color and hull#. I bet you will be ok. But you never know.