03-10-2010, 12:12 PM
Wrong. If it is your own backyard you can fish it any time you want.
I never expected last years ruling to hold up. The land owners are more passionate about protecting their land than the fishermen are about using it.This will probably keep coming up and cost the state a bunch of money to fight. But now that the landowners are organized, it will be an uphill battle.
I know and have talked to landowners about this, and I must say, I cant blame them for their view. People trash the land. Plain and simple. No matter which side you are on, you cannot deny that there will be bad members of the fishing community that don't care about livestock, gates, garbage and fences.
So even if you and most fisher people are ethical and respect landowners rights, someone will come along that doesnt play nice.
If stream access is ever to be a fair law for everyone, the state would have to set up a fund to repay landowners for damages. Something like a 1.00 fee on fishing licenses to pay for cleaning up trashed shorelines and repairing fences. If that was passed, maybe landowners and fishermen could find a way to work together. Until something like that happens, I would expect the landowners to fight hard to keep private property private.
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I never expected last years ruling to hold up. The land owners are more passionate about protecting their land than the fishermen are about using it.This will probably keep coming up and cost the state a bunch of money to fight. But now that the landowners are organized, it will be an uphill battle.
I know and have talked to landowners about this, and I must say, I cant blame them for their view. People trash the land. Plain and simple. No matter which side you are on, you cannot deny that there will be bad members of the fishing community that don't care about livestock, gates, garbage and fences.
So even if you and most fisher people are ethical and respect landowners rights, someone will come along that doesnt play nice.
If stream access is ever to be a fair law for everyone, the state would have to set up a fund to repay landowners for damages. Something like a 1.00 fee on fishing licenses to pay for cleaning up trashed shorelines and repairing fences. If that was passed, maybe landowners and fishermen could find a way to work together. Until something like that happens, I would expect the landowners to fight hard to keep private property private.
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