Coming to a stream near you!! CLOSED!

I know this is a crappie board, but this kind of thing can happen on your favorite spot and i want to spread the word to fellow fisherman and hopefully save everyone some cash.

I want to let everyone know about some changes at mar Val and fishing on the river. There is a new owner of the property north of marval. He is policing access and tickets are being issued by Jerry Henry ( ok game warden). No longer can you walk, anchor, or touch the bottom!! The owner sits on his new deck and hollers at you and takes pics he sends to the game warden, who comes and finds you. Word from mar Val is that he gave over 30 tickets ( not sure of accuracy)
it just doesn't seem that you should be able to stop access that has been public since the Tenkiller dam was built. Apparently this new owner got with the adjoining owner (McCoy) and closed it down. I wish Tulsa fly fishers club and anyone else who has any interest in access to public waters to pay attention to this one!
very disturbing news!

Please share this with any and everyone!
Mods, if this isnt appropriate in this area, feel free to move it. I just want to pass the word to the community.

As much as it pains me to say this, I found out he's right the hard way. We were dove hunting on the river several years ago. we got there by boat and thought if we hunted out of the boat we were legal. Landowner came and told us to get off his property and that he owned and paid taxes to the center of the river. We left and called game warden who verified this. As long as we weren't touching the bottom we were legal...except for the moving boat thing. Live and learn but I sure don't like it!

I prefer to think of the landowner as a flipping jerk. This needs to be changed

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Originally Posted by crappiepappa

I prefer to think of the landowner as a flipping jerk. This needs to be changed

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That's the way it's been as long as I know concerning private property rights.
The water is public, but the land on the sides and bottom belong to the neighboring landowners.
One of my places has suffered some erosion. The corner post is now in the middle of the river. That doesn't mean I lost my property rights to that land.
The guy at mar Val's is certainly being a jerk about it I must agree.

What's really bad is that no longer can you float from the dam to gore landing without trespassing! There are a couple of areas you have to drag your boat. Get out to drag it.... Boom, trespassing. Floated and fished it for over 25 years!
no more.

I'm hearing they're giving warnings for the trespassing but writing tickets for other violations. As for the Tulsa fly club heard there president got a trespassing warning recently. Just sad someone would be like that way. I could understand if they were tearing up things. There not hurting anything walking along the bank or putting an anchor out. It's such a great place to fish and spend time with your the family. We've been going there for 17 yrs. Sure wish someone could get this changed.

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Well, according to the US Supreme Court rulings, it's not legal to restrict navigatable river access if the river has ever been used commercially. It has! Fishing guides, canoe rentals and trade goods years ago. You are supposed to have access up to the high water mark. It's a local seq county judges opinion which doesn't agree with Feds

Somebody would have to challenge it on those grounds.
If they have the money to possibly lose.
They just need to ticket a high power attorney so he would pursue the case pro bono.

You can forget about it being changed unless the land owner changes his mind or he sells the land. He owns the land the stream is flowing across. You can use the water way because it is considered navigable but you may not (in the state of Oklahoma) touch the stream bed or shores with your person or boat or tube or whatever you are floating in. He owns the ground and if he wants to restrict access he may, according to the laws of this state. There have been long standing fights over this issue in Montana for decades. Just do this google search, "stream access supreme court". You will see what I mean. Colorado and Wyoming have dealt with this issue also. The only way the public will get access is changing the laws of the state. If the access fights in those states that rely heavily on fly fisherman dollars are any indication, then we can forget about it here, where sportsman's desire to access flowing rivers is chicken scratch compared to land owners influence. By the way, if this land owner is restricting access for the same reasons most others have in these other states, then the motive is not trash or trespassing, IT IS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE of keeping people from using the section of river that is in their property. They want it for themselves, and they will force law enforcement to enforce the laws of the state whether law enforcement wants to or not. Which includes the Wildlife Dept :puke

One quick side note. There was a case in Montana where a public road crossed a river that was navigable but crossing private property (I believe it was the Ruby river). People were using the right of way that accompanied the road to access the river. Then they would float thru and fish without touching bottom or shore. The landowner fenced and posted the bridge where people were accessing the river. The state told him you cant do that, lawsuits were filed, courts got involved. Landowner lost. The end result was, if you can gain legal access by right of way or other legal means (you may not trespass to get to the river) you may float, but you may not touch bottom or shore.