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

[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.

[buzzbaiter]

http://www.nationalrivers.org/states/nj-law.htm

Good luck finding a list of NJ's Navigable Rivers. One would think it includes most major rivers(Raritan/Pequest/Paulinskill/Musky et al). Not sure about the small/medium streams.

Landowners probably don't know so trespassing not advised. If you want to get dragged into court and resolve this issue, by all means do so.

[Cuz]

Great post and pictures, son. Maybe you can start writing more stories for magazines. But the pay is really bad. The editors want the stories but want them almost free. It was nice fishing with you. Let's go again soon to some of my spots.