Growing up in Michigan spending plenty of time on the water, DNR frequently pulled along side to check for safety equipment and licenses. We complied and never gave it any thought. DNR officers were all pretty cool.
Yep. Dad and I found several that were cool when I was around 10.
1st time out up at Boone's Pond in our brand new molded 2 man pontoon style boat. Got motioned into shore. No registration. Dad Didnt realize that a trolling motor put us over the threshold for registration. (He thought only larger or gas powered required it) He let us off with a verbal warning as long as we stopped right then and there. It was obvious the boat was shiny and brand new and we werent doing it habitually.
A couple weeks later we are back out with our freshly tagged and numbered boat and got waved in again. What now?!?!? Numbers were not far enough above the water line he said. Dad pointed out to be high enough off the water he would have had to use numbers too small to be compliant. CO thought about it for a minute and said that under the circumstances too low was better than too small, and to carry on.