I boat there exclusively. I've not had this issue. The sobriety checks are few and far between, no different than on the road. Although they do have them infrequently. I find that during busy times there is enough crazy stuff going on that there are plenty of others begging to get pulled over, like K4M indicated.

The one day I got nick nacked a few years back, there was an officer that was training a new recruit. He pulled me over twice in 3 hours. First time was because I was not totally off plane when I hit the no wake buoys going into Frankie and Louie's. That was the weekend they moved the buoys out another 1/4 mile or so from the place, and they sat there most of the day pulling poeple over to remind them the markers changed. Then he got me a few hours later at the no wake under Grand Glaize, where he said he thought he saw someone sitting on the engine hatch (BS). As the new recruit started the safety drill, my wife reminded the senior officer that we had just gone through it, had he forgotten? The officer remembered and just sent us on our way immediately.

Other than that, and going through a sobriety check on purpose because I knew it was there the day after labor day (call me nuts for just wanting to experience it), I've not had any issues for years. The sobriety check was hilarious. My wife and I were out alone, with only water and soda, and before I could get the registration out of the cabin my wife had asked the officer about 15 questions on where he went to school, how he got interested in this field of work, etc etc. When I came out of cabin with the coast guard registration, he just looked at me and said "thank you for being a sober boater sir, you and your wife go ahead and be on your way!" He never checked anything.

I agree with you at night time though, especially between 10 and 1am or so. And especially if you are leaving the bar areas like Toads or Backwater Jacks. They just hang out at those areas and follow boats that leave. If you break the 30MPH speedlimit you just gave them an excuse to check to see if you are over the alcohol limit. A reason I rarely, almost never boat at night anymore. That and I don't trust many of the other boats at night.

Mark,

I'll have to add that one to the short list! Great tip, Thanks.

Zack

They are pretty bad anymore. Typical sitting outside docks after dark, waiting. Agreed , if you don't act stupid, probably ok.

BUT, they have shut down a whole run o fthe lake and funnelled all boats through a "safety check." Locals told me it generally happens when they do on-road road blocks.

Additionally, someone in the Frankie & Louie's cove is allowing them to dock their boat in a slip. I was watching a WP boat one minute, looked up and he was gone. A large boat with a single caught my attention as I idled by in a slip with line-of-sight to the dock.

You guessed it... WP guy had slipped boat, was up on the dock using night vision binoc's watching everything going on. So someone over there doesn't like the boat traffic and was allowing them to use their dock as a hiding/observation point.

Zack

Not worth the drive from Illinois, not even worth the 45 min drive for me.

I got pulled over last year @ the fall harbor hop on a bogus deal like the ones above. The WP claimed I was in gear when my wife hopped on deck to place the bow line. Having only had Diet Pepsi all day I made sure to let the officer know that the sticks were in neutral and he was welcome to hop in and take a look if he didn't believe me. He quickly realized he wasn't citing me for anything and just asked to see some life jackets. At this point I go into the cabin to grab the jackets and I kill the engines because I forgot to take my lanyard off. There were three adults on board and I brought out 8 Jackets and showed the officer the lanyard hoooked to my shorts and said "Looks like my Lanyard works."

At this point I was on my way. No Documentation info or anything.

If you are sober you have nothing to worry about. They will send you on your way.