Hunter/Fisherman Harrasment (This happend to me tonight.)

[Travis Smith]

I am not sure how many of you have had run ins with other people about fishing on "their" land when you are fishing a stream or doing the like in osme other way.



I had my first run in tonight at about 7:30 pm when I was down at my grandparents house fishing for steelhead below some guys house that I have no clue who owns and I got out of the water to bypass a deep hole/stumpy area and got into the woods aways because of thick briars and steep baks to where I could not stay in the water. Anywho I find some steelies and the guy in this house starts screaming for me to get off his land. I had already entered the water before he started yelling at me form 100 feet up the sttep bank to his house. I politely asked him if I could come to his side of the creek and step onto the bank so I could hear him better. He said no and for me to get the HELL off his land. (I was standing in the water!) So he shut the window he was standing in and walked away so I proceeded fishing in the same spot. Then he came out on his deck and yelled at me some more and said "Get the hell off my land you little bastard or I will get my shotgun." So I am no dummy and left right away after he mentioned a shotgun.





Tomrrow I am going to call my local DNR officer to have him talk to the guy who did this to me and make a fisherman harrasment claim.



I was fishing down there all last year with no problems and now I have no clue what happened.





What would you Do?







T.S.

 

[Julio Santana]

Forget DNR...you need to call the local police department.



Right or wrong...you need to leave when a gun is brought into the picture.



I'm no lawyer or expert; however, I know that in the State of Florida, for the most part, nobody owns water. Some States are the same, others property rights extend to the dirt under the water to a certain designated distance from the shoreline as the water rises and falls or from the high water mark or the low water mark or certain feet or yards from a fixed point...etc.



On a different note...you were trespassing if you stepped on his property. Trespass, not criminal trespass, does not give anyone the right to threaten your life. He could be arrested and prosecuted for assault for such behavior.



Waving a gun around would probably land him in jail for a good while unless he could prove you were an imminent threat meaning to cause severe bodily harm or death to him if he did not react with deadly force. Somehow, I don't know that fishing is a big threat to a person.



Taking a shot at you would probably get him some gray-bar hotel time for attempted murder. Actually hitting you would be rediculous as I'd hope you'd have left and not escalated the situation to any point even close to these mentioned above. It's best to leave idiots alone for the most part.



I'm also going to guess that his place wasn't a steelhead farm and steelhead production was not his primary business endeavor.



I'm going on and on here...but you get the point.

 

[Larry Harp]

I have to agree with Sharx. You really should call the police. Anybody who gets that upset over a young man doing a little fishing in a stream could be up to no good his self. It's not like you were building a campfire and staying overnight. Who knows he could be growing pot or something and that's why he didn't want anybody coming on his property....if it is his property.

When I was about your age, for a short time I lived in a very small town right on the Okla/Arkansas state line. Afrer school sometimes I used to hike outside of town and do a little rabbit hunting. All the kids in school told me about a crazy old lady who was suppose to have a still and made moonshine. If you got too close to her property, they said, she would run you off with the shotgun. Well I always believed it was better to be a living chicken than a dead hero. Especially when it came to a few rabbits. I did see her sometimes checking me out but I never got too close. In reality she was probablly just an old backwoods lady that was afraid of strangers...I don't know.

Be carful out there, there's a lot of nutcases in the world these days.



Harpo

 

[Richard Whittemore]

Were there any signs? There are unfortunatley, alot of a$$e$ running around and some really like to show their's off.

I don't know of any state that land owners own the stream (in Georgia, you can own part or all of a pond) unless the confines are on both sides of the stream. Private property or posted signs should then be used. No state gives them the fish wih their deed though. There are alot of gray areas in a situation like this.

Call the police / sheriff and report this guy, he needs to talk to the police...

 

[Tim Jeffers]

Travis,



I can't speak for the laws in MI, but here in WI it is EXTREMELY rare that someone owns any of the land underthe water. It is also permissable to walk the shoreline of rivers/streams where wading is impossible. Even if it is supposedly private property, the guy probably doesn't own the shoreline, he just has an easement. I'm with everyone else - notify local law enforcement. This hothead needs to learn that you can't just run around threatening people with a firearm - PERIOD!!!!



TJ

 

[fatrap]

Yeah Travis call the sheriff and let us know how it comes out. No one in their right minds acts that nutty unless something is wrong. Let us know how it works out.

fatrap



BYW did you catch any steelhead?

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Travis-

Before you call the DNR, ensure you were not on a designated 'trout stream' or other waters that is currently closed to trout fishing...remember that the 'general' trout season does not open until April 24th here in MI...I know there are exceptions, but it would be bad to report this to the DNR when you are in violation...



az

 

[Travis Smith]

Fatrap----while the guy was in the process of yelling at me (I multi tasked...I was fishing and yelling back and forth at this guy.)I hokked a steely on my third cast and he got off because I could not yell and play the fish ant the same time.





Andy- I checked out the trout stream hand book last night on the internet and It said that this particular stream I am fishing is open all year around but it does have a season where yo can keep the fish which is next weekend the 24th untill September. I was not going to keep any of the fish because I dont really care for steelhead and I dont like cleaning fish.





Thanks for your input. I am going to make the phone call tonight after my dad gets home from work so I will let you guys know how it goes.



Also there is an easement where I can bypass any un wadable water, which was about a 50 yard strech that is waist deep sand bottem and knee boots would not work so I had to bypass it and this particular area was on this nutjobs "property"







T.S.

 

[Tony Payne]

ok Travis, for an opinion you don't want to hear...



1. I agree that this person should not have been waving a gun at you...



2. If you were past the easement, you were on his property. Doesn't matter if the easement was "impassible" or inconvenient. He had every right to demand you to get off his property.



3. "Yelling back and forth while fishing" is certainly not a very sportsmanlike thing to do... you knew from the first encounter that this person was going to be some form of trouble for you... the honorable thing to do would have been to ignore him (at the least) or leave the area (at the most)... arguring and yelling with him was not going to help your situation.



If you intend to fish an area that you might end up "on someones property" you should ask permission first... has nothing to do with wether or not the person owns the stream, creek or fish, it has to do with respect... a little shown goes a long, long way.



Most likely, if you go to the police or DNR they will tell you this same thing, and you might get a ticket/warning yourself for tresspassing...



My advice?



Don't push it... after a few more days have passed, knock on the gentlemans FRONT door and apologize for the misunderstanding, ask permission for future fishing and let him know that you respect his property rights... and that you'll leave the area better than you found it.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

I fished an area of the Shenandoah river where landowners were real picky about trespassing. I found what I thought was a public spot, it looked that way because of all the trash, and before I fished, I cleaned up the area...beer bottles, cans diapers (yuk) and all sorts of garbage. Buddy and I began to fish and about an hour later, Warden shows up and calls me out of the river and explains that it is private land (showed me where a no trespassing sign was pulled off of a tree). Then he noticed the three trash bags of garbage and asked if I picked this stuff up and I told him I always have bags in the jeep and make it a point to leave with more than I came with. Normally he would have issued a ticket but he said that he wished there were more like me. He reminded me to get the landowners permission first. About 20 minuets later the landowner pull up and thanked me and gave me permission to fish there anytime.



That being said, the guy you were dealing with might have been a psyco or just po'd because a lot of guys have used his land as a sidewalk. Nonetheless, threatening with a gun is waaaaaay out of bounds no matter what....unless you were trying to harm him. Report it.



TOXIC