"Navigable" stream question

[LJA]

This subject is usually a little controversial. I have read the DNR website about navigable streams including all of the rulings from the state court. At the end is a list of streams which, through the courts, have been classified as "navigable". However, is there an actual list of streams which have been deemed officially "non-navigable" and therefore not open to wading from a public access point. I am not trying to infringe on the property owner who has a trickle running through his back yard; I just want to be legal and don't want to be cited just because a stream looked "navigable" to me and not to a DNR officer.

[Steve]

Moving to Hunting/Fishing law forum.

[boehr]

There is no list of non-navigable streams. The best thing to do is call the District Office for the county that you want to find out about a stream and have the District Supervisor give you that information if the stream is navigable or not. He would know if there are any local court rulings in the past.

Navigablity is a difficult topic and the DNR has tried a number of times to get the legislature to better define it. Definitions have been attached to different bill but the section on navigability never makes it through the legislature.

[LJA]

Boehr, I appreciate you replying to my question.

What happens if a CO is called by a landowner to a stream I'm fishing (which has not been recently stocked by the state), and the stream has never been labelled navigable or not. Would I be cited and we'd sort it out in court? Asked to leave? Would they really perform the "floating log test"?

Thanks again!

[boehr]

Stocking streams has nothing to do with navagability. No, there is no floating log test. Back in the lumbering days, many rivers and streams were dammed in order to raise the water levels to get the logs to the point in the river where they were wanted.

The best answer I can give is that if navagability is in question, call the District Office that the stream is in and they will tell you or find out for you.

[kroppe]

boehr,

I was told by a DNR fisheries biologist that navigability was one requirement for a stream to be stocked. The case in point was that I asked if a certain stream could be stocked with trout. The response was that, even though the stream had great trout habitat, it was not navigable, therefore not legally accessible by wading anglers. Therefore the DNR would not stock the non-navigable water because the fish would not be accessible to licensed anglers.

[boehr]

kroppe...I'm sure that is what Fish Division makes every attempt to do. There are cases though that the court detirmines that a stream is not navigable after the fact. Rock Falls Creek in Huron County had been planted with steelhead for years and fished by fishermen for years until about 3 years in a row where slob fishermen got into it, spearing steelhead, cutting down trees and building fires on the property, beer cans all over, etc., and finally the owner said enough was enough. Case went to court and the District Court ruled that Rock Falls Creek was not a navigable stream. Fish Division did stop planting fish after the ruling and it's too bad that the slobs wrecked it for the good fishermen. The owners were very nice people and even afterwards they gave people permission to be on the property and fish but became selective to who, how many at one time and when. Their rights upheld and our privledges gone because of poachers and slobs.

[fishinlk]

LJA, where is that list of streams? I couldn't find it. My buddy who lives in Bay City had an issue last spring near the Rifle and I'd like to check this out.

Originally posted by LJA:
This subject is usually a little controversial. I have read the DNR website about navigable streams including all of the rulings from the state court. At the end is a list of streams which, through the courts, have been classified as "navigable". However, is there an actual list of streams which have been deemed officially "non-navigable" and therefore not open to wading from a public access point. I am not trying to infringe on the property owner who has a trickle running through his back yard; I just want to be legal and don't want to be cited just because a stream looked "navigable" to me and not to a DNR officer.



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Never Confuse having a career with having a life!

[LJA]

fishinlk,

I know this subject doesn't affect 98% of fishermen, but I enjoy small stream fishing and don't want to violate. I guess this discussion can be summed up best by asking landowner permission when in doubt or checking local offices as boehr suggested. Most landowners conclude if you have enough respect to ask permission, you'll treat their property with the same respect, and they'll let you fish. Here is the address at the DNR's website:
http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/enforcement/publicrights.htm

The "navigable stream list" is at the end, beginning under APPENDIX A. There are all of 3 streams listed in APPENDIX E, the "non-navigable" section.

[fishinlk]

Thanks!
I always do ask if there is a dwelling anywhere close. Small streams are my favorites also. My buddy was fishin a feeder to the rifle and the closest was a house 1/4 mile down the road. A guy came down, yelled at him and called the cops on his cell phone. He wasn't cited but not a fun afternoon. He was polite with the guy and everything. the guy just had 0 tolerence.


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Never Confuse having a career with having a life!