Black and Lamington Rivers, 4/17/2013, Pottersville and Chester

[Lard Almighty]

Originally Posted by Doug Vitale

From Hacklebarney I drove to check out the Passaic River in Basking Ridge (Morristown Road, Hardscrabble Road). Lots of private property, almost no parking, and from the few glimpses of the river I saw, it's too shallow for trout fishing. I pulled into the New Jersey Audubon Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary on Hardscrabble Road, but I didn't feel like parking and walking down to see the river. From there I drove downstream past the big Verizon campus (near Lord Stirling Park); I found one bridge going over the Passaic (Madisonville Rd.) but it was fenced off, preventing parking. However, the river did look more fishable. I'll have to check out the Passaic downstream from there more.

The stretch on the Audubon property is really small water, but it has a good number of wild rainbows and browns. Nothing much bigger than 6 inches.

[bigfishy]

If you look at Black River Rd. on Google Maps, you'll see what I mean. Can anyone explain this to me?


Google is wrong....

[cmoran719]

love the black river in hacklebarney. It's even more serene and scenic then ken lockwood since it's not crowded and doesn't have a wide and easily accessible trail running along side of it

[buzzbaiter]

All that land in that area was in private ownership at one time. The stream corridor and stream bottom were then leased in perpetuity to Black River Fish and Game Club. The NJDEP then bought the land adjacent to that. Google borders/parcels are NOT accurate. They are an approximation. I choose to use other sources such as state and county Parcel and/or tax maps which are very accurate. Also Google highlights open space in green but in fact green can be private lands as well such as golf courses, camps, preserves and other sorts of conservation easements which are NOT public.

Many streams in Pa are private despite the fact you can walk right up to them. The stream bottom is land and can be owned stupid as it sounds.

[Lard Almighty]

Originally Posted by buzzbaiter

All that land in that area was in private ownership at one time. The stream corridor and stream bottom were then leased in perpetuity to Black River Fish and Game Club. The NJDEP then bought the land adjacent to that. Google borders/parcels are NOT accurate. They are an approximation. I choose to use other sources such as state and county Parcel and/or tax maps which are very accurate. Also Google highlights open space in green but in fact green can be private lands as well such as golf courses, camps, preserves and other sorts of conservation easements which are NOT public.

Many streams in Pa are private despite the fact you can walk right up to them. The stream bottom is land and can be owned stupid as it sounds.

I thought it was the other way around. That the land bordering a "navigable waterway" could be privately owned, but the waterway itself was still public domain. I remember when I fished the Raritan along Duke estates, back when the security guards were cracking down on trespassers, I was told by multiple guards that I could fish the river near the Duke property as long as I stayed in the water. Not sure if this is the same situation, though.

[Capt. Lou]

I agree w/ Lard, the premis that the stream bed is private proprty is open to discussion.
I can readily understand if you own property on both sides of a river you can certainly stop acess thus prevent fishing as well, however on more than one occassion I've seen signs strung across rivrs denying access to that portion of stream !
So maybe there is validity to that ownership of stream bed in some fashion.

[The Sinker Man]

They could own the land and or the stream bed, BUT they don't own the water...Use a boat, canoe, yet, etc. This topic comes up every year and no one really gives an answer..How about one of you CO montoring this give us an answer.