Ottawa denying launching to out of Staters

[Madd Matt]

Well... I have stayed quiet for a while and watched, but I will jump in on this and tell you what I know.
I am in constant contact with several government entities in Ottawa County, including the local health department (who is the first and only regulatory body over the Ohio Stay at Home order), the County Prosecutor (who is the ultimate authority on enforcement for the County including the Health Department), the County Commissioners, ODNR Wildlife District Wildlife officer, ODNR Director for the State, and local ODNR officers.

First and foremost everyone needs to keep in mind that things are changing daily and sometimes multiple times per day... So the information that you got last week is old and possibly obsolete.

Secondly, you need to realize that there are plenty of charters running and have been since March. Because of this there are a lot of charter captains that are angry that they chose to stop running trips and others did not. The highest number of complaints being called into the local and State offices are coming from charter captains that are sore about other charters running and they are reporting them.. or trying to.

Thirdly, because those charter captains make no headway in their complaints some of them have chosen to provide mis-information and post things that are not true simply to try and keep people from fishing.

Fourthly, everyone needs to get their enforcement agencies in line. ODNR is not allowed (they currently do not have the authority to issue any fines nor tickets for the stay-at-home order). This order is currently through the State Department of Health, so the enforcement goes to the local health departments (which can ask other law enforcement agencies to help.. but have not in Ottawa County). The local health department is not out on the docks nor checking fishing vessels at this time and have not yet done so as of this post. The County Prosecutor is the prosecuting arm and ultimate enforcement for the local County agencies including the health department. In Ottawa County the prosecutor has 5 Peace Officers (these officers generally focus on the drug task force in the County). The Coast Guard is Federal and they don't want to enforce local rules and have not attempted to do so in regards to Stay-at-Home.

So... what does all of that mean?

1- ODNR is still enforcing any and all normal State fishing regulations. ODNR will ticket anyone (Including in-State and Out-of State fishermen) who does not comply with State fishing regulations. Yes, this does mean that if you don't have your required stamp, nor a fishing license, or are over limit etc... you will be fined. They may also in conversation verbally tell you that you are supposed to quarantine for 14 days, but you won't get a ticket or fine for that. If you are out of State and already had you license and stamp and ODNR is at the dock, as of this post, they have smiled and been polite and tell you "Good luck today."

2- The County prosecutor has recently had the County Peace Officers at a couple of the public ramps on weekends. They have told some out of State boaters that they are not supposed to be fishing if they haven't quarantined for 14 days. They have been effectively able to talk people from out of State into not launching their boat from the ramps that they are watching (they know full well that those individuals may go find a private ramp or another public ramp and they are not following them). They have not written a single ticket, no written warnings, no fines, no strong enforcement. Most boaters have been cooperative and complied with the verbal "soft enforcement."

3- Private boat launches are open and as of this posting there have not been any Stay at Home enforcement efforts in Ottawa County other than some of the launches local owners. Private launches are not required to, nor do they have the authority to "enforce" any orders. They can deny service to those breaking the rules, but they can't be held liable for not doing so.

4- The local health department as of this post is busy with grocery stores, major retail, and foodservice establishments in maintaining safe distancing and operations that they have not been watching fishermen nor been physically at any docks doing enforcement on any level.

ODNR has openly sent public communication saying that they are enforcing all normal State fishing regulations and are not the enforcement arm of the State Director of Health. In order for ODNR to even be legally allowed to enforce those guidelines the Governor would have to issue an executive order (which he has not. Everything is through the State Department of Health), or the County Prosecutor can ask for their help to enforce, which has not happened and ODNR does not want to have happen.

The ODNR director has been asked by the Ottawa County Sheriff to shut down public ramps due to out of State boater. She did go to Muzurics and Catawba and watched for a couple days and counted out of State license plates. She watched as people launched and came back. She was content that fishermen were being polite and social distancing on the ramps, they were all being courteous and that only about 18% of the autos had out of State plates. She said as long as the ramps were used and fishermen were acting the way they are she wasn't shutting them down.

This is not a post to say that people can ignore the orders. It is simply to say that in Ottawa County there has been no "hard enforcement" to date of the stay at home orders for private fishermen going out on their boats.

There are plenty of marinas in Ottawa County that have slips available. There is no rule, no law, no order that prohibits marinas from allowing paying members or dockers from putting their boat in a slip. In fact marinas are exempt as they are considered essential in Ohio. If someone really wants to launch their boat and go fishing and not hassle with the public launches, its relatively inexpensive to just do a seasonal slip at a marina and skip the line in and out at the launch. A nice drive-up slip with parking at your boat is around $1,200 - $1,400 / year.