Restricted Areas Of Water

[Squirmin Wormin]

it seems to me that alot of areas of water are being restricted to anything but fishing and weren't that way before . just like no swimming ,tubing,boating, wading,or float tubes either 

just amazed they haven't put a stop to that yet.( the fishing that is )

you have this problem where you reside ? or is it becoming a custom?

[WRB]

Since 911 our lakes restrict the dam areas with buoy lines for entry, about 1/4 mile away. This was in place for several lakes where I fish before 911, so no real impact..

Tom

[SirSnookalot]

In South Florida the new home building is going pretty strong, a new community comes in and I may lose access to canal that I once fished.  Even in places where there are no homes going in fences have been put up to limit the area that can be fished.

In some of the saltwater areas parking meters have been installed.  We can fish any beach as long as there is public access, those public access places are dwindling or charging a lot of $$ for parking.  The restriction would be a government installation like Cape Canaveral. 

[Raul]

Down here if it´s Federal property you can be there. There are many small lakes where I live, landowners may fence the property that surrounds the lake but can´t forbid you from walking from and to the lake, also, they can´t forbid you from walking along the bank, the land surrounding the lake is Federal land up to 15 mts from the water level at full pool.

[gulfcaptain]

Some lakes are water district, no float tube, no swimming, no wading due because they are used for drinking water.  Others no access to wet lower units, wet boat, etc due to trying to stop zebra and quaggula mussels.  I'm guessing it's more liability issues where smaller bodies of water restrict swiming, float tubes, boating, tubing due to law suits and "stupid" people who don't use common sense or take personal responsibility.

[Raul]

Some lakes are water district, no float tube, no swimming, no wading due because they are used for drinking water.  Others no access to wet lower units, wet boat, etc due to trying to stop zebra and quaggula mussels.  I'm guessing it's more liability issues where smaller bodies of water restrict swiming, float tubes, boating, tubing due to law suits and "stupid" people who don't use common sense or take personal responsibility.

 

Several of those drown every now and then at the lakes I fish ..... right next to the sign where it says NO SWIMMING.

[gulfcaptain]

Several of those drown every now and then at the lakes I fish ..... right next to the sign where it says NO SWIMMING.

Exactly, no common sense. A lot of times there are reasons for "No Swimming"  

[ccummins]

That's just Darwin's Law of Natural Selection thinning out the weak (minded) from the herd.....

[buzzed bait]

not sure i understand the post at all?  if you're saying they restrict eveything BUT fishing, but then ask if i have this problem where i reside i'm confused!  If they restricted all the water around to fishing only, there would be NO problems.... so i'm just not sure what you're asking?

Secondly, are you referring to federal type of lands or like private homeowner areas?

[gulfcaptain]

That's just Darwin's Law of Natural Selection thinning out the weak (minded) from the herd.....

yes, but the weak seem to find Strong Lawyers that defend their "weak minded" people that hurt themselves that end up with big settlements and then reproduce to have more.

[gulfcaptain]

And give them time my friend, they will push the no fishing thing until they get their way. Grew up fishing a local pond that was a "fishing" pond.  The home owners across the street got it banned to protect the ducks.  Now you get a ticket for fishing where it's posted "NO FISHING" but yet it's also posted NO FEEDING THE DUCKS".....where's the tickets for those people? They are working on trying to ban fishing in a few other city park ponds as well because we interfere with the ducks that they are trying to feed. 

[ccummins]

We have people down here who really put the "duh..." in "Flori-duh....."; insist on feeding the invasive ducks; Muscovy ducks to be exact....  The only good thing is that they feed them stale white bread so they end up dying of malnutrition with full bellies; the only thing that those ducks were ever any good for was being an easy meal for the alligator back when it was in danger of extinction....

[Lund Explorer]

When it comes to more than one person having the desire to use something that others also have access to, almost everyone will have their own ideas of how that resource should be restricted.

 

All types of water have restrictions on them.  In Michigan you'll find lakes with horsepower restrictions, no wake lakes, electric motor only or no motors at all lakes, and most popular are the no wake or high speed boating time restrictions.  On our rivers, some have limited use restrictions where the gov't limits the number of canoes (also known as the aluminum hatch) that can travel on that river each day.  I'm quite sure that most other states have restrictions on their lakes or rivers.

 

Then there are all of the restrictions on fishing.  In our state, we are restricted from where we can use a drop shot rig.  We have closed seasons for a whole rash of different fish species, and some areas that are closed to all fishing at certain times of the year.  We have stretches of rivers that are restricted for using flies only, hardware only, and no kill zones.

 

From reading some of the comments of users here, I'm going to assume that many of us could come up with a few restrictions we'd like to see.  How about no bucket fishermen?  What about a restriction on how close a boat can get near a shore bound angler?  A time limit on how long a person can tie up a launch site?  With a little thought, we can all come up with a list of restrictions we'd like to see.  Some real great ideas that would fit the way we see as the proper way the resource should be used.  If enough people got behind those ideas, we could influence the power that be to change how everyone enjoys this sport.  Wouldn't that be great?

 

Of course, how long before all the dock owners get a law passed that keeps fishermen 100' from their docks?

 

The bottom line is that every restriction that sounds great to one group of people takes away from the rest of us.  I don't mind seeing some restrictions if they are based on safety or the protection of a resource in danger of being lost.  After that, it becomes nothing more than a special law for a minority.

[iceintheveins]

Sadly this is becoming more common. Colorado and some other states have a few lakes where access is banned altogether because it's "drinking water" (although 97% of drinking water lakes are open to fishing and most to boating nationwide and there is no problem, it just depends on the whims of local governments, many of which can ban things by decree without even passing laws), and a few have no wading or boating at all allowed due to fears of invasive species. What sucks is these lakes are public property, payed for by tax dollars, and they think they can unilaterally act to keep the people off of their own property, when there is NO real evidence that fishing harms water quality according to experts. In most lakes in Colorado, you must have your boat "inspected" before you launch by some government doofus to check for mussels and other hitchhiking species. It's this way in many other states now too.

 

Benjamin Franklin truly said it best "a people who will trade freedom for security or safety will wind up with NEITHER." Drinking water protection and invasive species are not legit excuses to take away our liberty and they DO NOT hold up to intense scrutiny (as said before, there is a reason why 97% of all drinking water lakes are open and allow boating, because it DOESN'T damage water quality). Besides, all water usually ends up to be drinking water.

 

The "security" issue is also bogus. Keeping it closed to the public WILL NOT keep terrorists or nuts from trying to do anything with the water. In fact, with more people around, a terrorist is LESS likely to try something because he may get caught a lot quicker than if he sneaks into a closed public lake.

 

The "liability" issue is for the most part a BIG red herring. Most local governments are largely immune from such citizen law suits. Government property is PUBLIC property and only under dictatorship can the government TRULY own property.

 

Another issue is stream access. For example, in Colorado, even large, navigable rivers like the Colorado, Gunnison, Yampa, Roaring Fork, White, and Green have stretches where the banks are privately owned. In Colorado, the landowner is allowed to keep people off the banks or from touching the bottom of the river, DESPITE federal law clearly stating that navigable waters (waterways that can float craft for part or most of the year) are a public right of way. They can't stop you from floating, but you can be cited for "trespassing" if you touch the banks. States such as Montana and Idaho have remedied this by allowing recreational right of way below the high water marks of navigable streams.

 

I am passionate about this. We are losing more and more access every year it seems. A zero tolerance policy needs to be adopted by more anglers and to fight like hell to protect OUR waters.