Lost Another Good Fishing Spot....

[FishinCane]

Was out for a few hours this morning on the Hoosic. Went to a favorite spot and noticed it was posted. The section in back of Steiner Film in Williamstown was always posted in back of their building but now there are signs right along the rivers edge.

[JoeOverlock]

Do you know if Steiner Film posted it?

[Uplander]

Terrible. What about the opposite side of the river?

[FishinCane]

Other side has been posted for some time now.

[jf5]

Thats been posted since last fall if not sooner. Even the road into Steinerfilm is posted, as well as from the RR tracks, and heavily. The signs say Steinerfilm.

[Joshua Field]

It seems to me that, when I'm carrying a fly rod and wearing waders, people are more likely to wave and shout "catch anything?" when you walk across their 'back 40' than confront over private property.

It is my understanding is that, where public roads cross rivers, the public is allowed to access them as is possible and that, the river and bank up to the high water mark are also public property. My experience is that this provides plenty of room to work up the stream.

This is a great write up that I found a long time ago when I was curious about the same access rights question:
www.adventuresports.com/river/nors/us-law-public.htm

Some interesting points from the site:

...the law is that the rivers and the carrying places between them shall be forever free. The public does not have a general right to cross private land to get to and from rivers, but such a right exists at traditional access routes, under the above law and the legal doctrines of custom and prescription. States have an affirmative duty to maintain traditional access routes to rivers, and acquire additional access where needed and available. Where public roads cross over rivers, the public has the right to get from the bridge down to the river itself, so landowners cannot connect fences to bridge abutments in a way that blocks public access to the river. 39 Am.Jur. 2d (1968) Highways, Streets & Bridges, section 256, p. 644. State ex rel. Thornton v. Hay, 254 Or. 584, 462 P.2d 671 (1969). Gion v. City of Santa Cruz, 2 Cal. 3d 29, 465 P.2d 50 (1970). People v. Sweetser, 72 Cal. App. 3d 278 (1977).

In America, public fishing rights were codified shortly after the colonies were founded. In the 1640s, the city of Boston established laws to protect public rights to fishing waters, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared public rights to fish in the “great ponds,” and to cross private property, if not cultivated, to get to the water. People tend to assume that fishing at that time was just for sustenance, but the sport of fly fishing was already popular in Europe before America was colonized, and in Philadelphia there were at least five different fishing clubs before the Revolution.

[jlibs]

I see you having three options:

1. Fish elsewhere
2. Put more camo on and be stealth (pick up night time fly fishing)
3. Ask permissioon which will likely be granted to a fly fisherman of your stature

JLIBS