Does anyone know what the law is concerning fishing in an old quarry that is accessible via the river? The property was formerly a landlocked quarry that was purchased by a guy who turned it into a marina and dredged an access channel to it. He says that since he owns the property underneath the river he owns the right to restrict boats from entering his marina. It is an interesting issue. Anyone know the law?
Well, if you can get to it and still be on the water, you can fish it. He can’t regulate the water. If you can get to it in the water you can fish it. I am pretty sure that is how it is, because you can’t own water.
I think Larson is correct, but you should double check with the DNR in your area to save yourself a run in with the local sherif.
If he didn’t want anyone fishing his little pond I guess he shouldn’t have dredged an access to it. If you can get to it in the water you sure as hell can fish it. I’ve run into a few problems with property owners especially ice fishing small ponds and at least 3 different times I can remember calling a warden on the cell phone to come out and resolve the problem. So far I’ve always been right (luckily)
If you can float a boat to it from public water, you can fish it. Period.
If you expect a run in with the landowner, call the Sherrif and inform him/her of the situation. Problem Solved.
J.
Better yet make them call the Sheriff or DNR.
It’s a little more humiliating when the cops tell them that they are wrong. I’ve ran into this before and as long as you do not go on dry land they have no say. I am a property owner on a backwater lake and it was explained to me that if the water goes up I loose land and if it goes down I gain land.
I asked the DNR about this question once. He told me that on a navigable-non meandering stream or river the property owner owns the bottom of the river to the middle of the river, but the state owns the water. It should be legal for you to fish there because the state owns the water and it is public.
What state are you referng too? And what Marina?.
Is the Marina Hansons Harbor?
I was also wondering if it was Hanson’s harbor. Hopefully he learned his lesson about trying to chase people out of the harbor!
It has to be Hanson’s Harbor. This year he has been ordered by the court to display a sign at the entrance to “his” harbor that fisherman are welcome.
I remember testing this “tresspass” law once in the past… I was wading a “navigable” water in Iowa.. walked right under the barbwire strun all the way across the river (and actaully its supposed to be illegal to wire across a navigable water, but they used to get away with it!)…. anyway I was up the creek without a paddle so to speak when the owner came down with a shotgun and a pair of dobermans (guess I look pretty mean or something?)… he told me to wait right there… or he would loose his dogs on me… I told him his dogs would be drowned by ME if he did so….. anyway… I just kept fishing till the sherriff showed up…. the sherriff told me I was right… but asked me if I really wanted to be DEAD right… cuz this guy was crazy as they come and they had lots of problems with him….. so I decided it was smarter to fish a stretch where I would not be “hassled” and I left never to return……. sooooo.. moral of the story is.. sometimes being right is NOT good enough!! even though it should be….
He did not learn his lesson. I saw in an article that he said he would rather spend some time in jail then hang that sign.
After all fishemen are the root of all evil don’t ya know.LOL
Maybe we need to have an informal fishing tourney in hansons harbor sometime! LOL! I don’t know how big it is but I bet he would blow a gasket if he had 20 boats all fishing in there at one time.
Ok,so where is Hansons harbor anyway. Are you sure that’s where the original poster was refering to? Even if it isn’t though where is it and when’s the tourney. Steve
I read an article about this topic a couple of months or so ago in the Minnesota Outdoor News weekly newspaper. It gave a pretty detailed account of what the owner of Hanson Harbor had done to a couple of bass tournament fisherman…. one of which just happened to be a Minnesota State trooper. If I recall correctly, the harbor owner is also named Hanson (or Hansen?).
Anyway, these two guys were fishing in the harbor, apparently in an out-of-the-way location, and were catching some fish. This Hanson guy tried to chase them out of there and they refused to leave so he got in a boat and directed the prop wash at them and buzzed by them in a harassing manner. Why the trooper didn’t arrest him right then and there, I don’t know, but he issued a report to the local C.O. who then issued Hanson a citation. Apparently this Hanson guy has been harassing fisherman for a long time and he’s been trying to get the state trespassing law changed. I guess he has the harbor posted with No Fishing and No Trespassing signs.
The judge found him guilty and ordered him to repay the fisherman’s tournament entry fees. The judge also fined him, ordered him to put up large, visible signs stated that fishing is permitted in the harbor, and I think also ordered him to some community service time.
The trespassing laws are clearly spelled out in on Pg. 6 of the 2002 Minnesota Fishing Regulations. It states, “A stream or lake is legally accessible if there is a public access, or if the public land or a public road right-of-way abuts the surface of the water, or if you have permission to cross private land to reach the surface of the water.”
I do a lot of fishing and hunting and one thing I’ve always really liked about fishing over hunting is that I don’t need to seek permission to fish, at least not on the river and major lakes. If I see a spot that looks good, I can just go fish it. I should note that I really haven’t found it that hard to get permission to hunt in Minnesota and Iowa and I’m very thankful for those landowner who do let me hunt.
Very interesting reading! For those us that don’t know, Where is Hanson’s Harbor?
BFD, Hanson’s is North of Lake City on Lake Pepin. I used to pay him to launch there. Can’t say that anymore, if you don’t want fisherman, you don’t want their money either…….:(
When in doubt, always ask your local Conservation Officer first ! If there is a problem, it is better for him to straighten things out, instead of an assumption !
Smitty
keep a tight line
For anyone who is interested the article that Boone is referring to is in the Feb. 22 2002 issue of The MN Outdoor News, I do not know if they ran the same article in the WI Outdoor News or not. I looked for this article on line so I could share it with everyone here but was not able to find it, not all of the articals are available on line. There was also a follow up article in the WI & MN Outdoor News(there was a post about this here on FTR) about the DNR officer who was brought up on charges for killing a cat, all the charges were dropped, I also tried to find this article to post here but had no luck finding it. For those of you who might be thinking of testing out Hansons Harbor to see what happens, I would advise you to think twice about it, from the stories I have heard this guy is as crazy
as the guy that RiverEyes had a run in with.
When is the tourney? I will take my 24′ boat and drop a few lines off that.
Thanks for all of the insight. I guess the best thing to do is check with the authorities.
Heck, I’ve never met this Hansen character but from what I’ve read your description was kind.
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