Good News for Fishermen

[Ken G]

If you take a look at the post — Public Ownership of Rivers in the United States Part 2 — you will see a quote in there that basically says fishermen may have even more rights to access flowing waters than even those that float on the water.

Just came across this:

Fishing Legal in River Despite Adjacent Private Land

The Chicago Whitewater Association (http://www.izarea.org/cwa) reports that a man was ticketed for fishing on a section of river running through private property. Although the absent property owner had not complained about the activity, a Department of Natural Resources official ticketed the man anyway.

The fisherman took his complaint to court, where the judge found him not guilty because the state had not shown beyond a reasonable doubt that he had violated any law. His defense was based on sections 18 and 26 of the Illinois statutes protecting the right of the people to have access to all navigable waterways, regardless of the ownership of the adjoining banks.

Not sure how old this is. The link to the website is dead.

Tracked down sections 18 and 26 of the Illinois Statutes. Here are parts that pertain. I ain't no lawyer though . . .

(615 ILCS 5/18) (from Ch. 19, par. 65)
Wherever the terms public waters or public bodies of water are used or referred to in this Act, they mean all open public streams and lakes capable of being navigated by water craft, in whole or in part, for commercial uses and purposes, and all lakes, rivers, and streams which in their natural condition were capable of being improved and made navigable, or that are connected with or discharged their waters into navigable lakes or rivers within, or upon the borders of the State of Illinois, together with all bayous, sloughs, backwaters, and submerged lands that are open to the main channel or body of water and directly accessible thereto. Nothing herein contained applies to a harbor under the jurisdiction and control of a park district, nor to any existing yacht club facilities, improvements thereon and replacements thereof whether in the same or a new location. Nothing herein contained applies to the location of any harbor under the jurisdiction and control of any city or village of less than 500,000 population.

(615 ILCS 5/26) (from Ch. 19, par. 73)
Sec. 26. The Department of Natural Resources shall, for the purpose of protecting the rights and interests of the State of Illinois, or the citizens of the State of Illinois, have full and complete jurisdiction of every public body of water in the State of Illinois, subject only to the paramount authority of the Government of the United States with reference to the navigation of such stream or streams, and the laws of Illinois, but nothing in this Act contained shall be construed or held to be any impairment whatsoever of the rights of the citizens of the State of Illinois to fully and in a proper manner, enjoy the use of any and all of the public waters of the State of Illinois, and the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources shall be deemed to be for the purpose of protecting the rights of the people of the State in the full and free enjoyment of all such bodies of water, and for the purpose of preventing unlawful and improper encroachment upon the same, or impairment of the rights of the people with reference thereto, and every proper use which the people may make of the public rivers and streams and lakes of the State of Illinois shall be aided, assisted, encouraged and protected by the Department of Natural Resources.
(Source: P.A. 89‑445, eff. 2‑7‑96.)

Now go back and read the long Public Ownership of Rivers post.

As I've been saying for years, I go where ever I want when it comes to rivers and streams.

Seems to be the law.

Oh hell, just go read the whole thing. I know I will be.

Rivers, Lakes and Streams Act

[Ken G]

Bob,
Thanks for this info. You'll notice on chitown that they broke the link to my site intentionally where I have more details. My attitude with all sites from now on is going to be if they want their readers to have access to this kind of info, then link to it. If not, then it's their readers loss. No different then if someone linked to a Bowman or Sarley article.

I'm done screwing around with them. They're wasting my time.

I've been mulling over a way to go about it, I knew I should have just asked you. Maybe if nothing else, it will be the one long lasting thing I can do for the thing I love, fishing flowing water.

I know Marc Miller, the lieutenant governor Pat Quinns right hand man. Might be a good start. Heres why:

http://www.standingupforillinois.org/cleanwater/

Sir Ken,

If I formed a group to change the laws in Illinois for access to rivers here would be my initial plan.

Year One.
1. Get a pro bono lawyer or law group to help research exactly what the laws are and help us get a clear understanding of them.
2. plan what we would like to change and to what
3. create a tree trunk map of all the governmental agencies that are involved with creating these laws, funding these laws and enforcing these laws.
4. Find out which is the most influential.
5. Find out the Committees that this would come before.
6. Get the names of all members of the committee, their party affiliations and their voting records where available.
7. Do FOIAs of these committee members to find out where their campaign contributions come from.
8. Go to some committee meetings to see how they work. Who likes the laws and who doesn’t and what the issues are.

Year two
1. decide which parts of the laws are Fed based, state based, county based.
2. Start raising money. Start contributing to select campaigns and war chests.
3. Keep IMMACULATE financial records!!!!!
3. Formulate the way you wish the laws to read.
4. Get members to your group, explain what you wish to do. Start the calls, letters, emails, etc.
5. Develop patience.

Year three and beyond –
1. keep at it, be flexible (not with your goals, but your methods and tactics) and train your successors
2. When you burn out – stop.

I’ve had people tell me “it doens’t matter who’s in office – they are all the same” as an explanation for their political inaction. WRONG! It does matter and they ain’t all the same. Chicago is going to be quite a different city without Mayor Daley. The direction of government will be quite different with a different president. Some will be pleased, some won’t. It matters.

Thank You Sir BOB.