I was out on a Mother's Day cruise on Lake Conroe yesterday afternoon and saw something that really made me scratch my head. We went by what is probably a $10+ million house- seriously, this looked like the Tony Montoya mansion. The guys dock was one of the coolest I have ever seen...

From his bulkhead, he dredged out a channel into his yard area (which looked like a fairway at Augusta) about 150' or so long, where he had a little grove of trees with a sitting area and his covered boat lift. Along the side of the channel, he had a few docks to tie off a spare boat or two, and 2 jet ski lifts. All in all, it was a very expensive, very cool setup.

The thing that made me scratch my head was that he had a chain attached to the corners of his bulkhead stretching across that channel. I fully understand the guy wanting to keep private and protect the dock which he obviously paid a lot of $$ for. However, it is my understanding that if you are able to access the water from a boat in public water, that it is public water - despite the fact that this guy created the channel himself by dredging out his own land.

What are your takes on this?

The channel only leads to his private ramp/dock, right - it doesn't provide a public throughway to 'navigate' anywhere else? If so, I'd say let well enough alone & he's entitled to protect his stuff.

If he was blocking a public throughway I'd feel differently.

As for as I've read it, people could actually fish from his dock. The chain blocks off what is now public water. I would be more curious as to how he was able to legally dredge out the water way.

Don't think he has the right to control or block public water. He only owns the dock, nothing else.

Its simple, if it bothers you that much, report it to the authority who governs said body of water. Public water is public water. Cut and dry, no ifs and buts about it.

I don't blame the guy for wanting to protect his manicured property, but its not legal to do so.

just curious...is this house on the south side of Little Lake?

I think that's right... assuming Little Lake is just north of the Walden peninsula.

Towards the back there you get to some really big estates... $5 million won't touch some of these houses. Absolutely amazing.

I really don't care that he blocks it off. In fact I would do the same. Its simply a matter of curiosity.

AAAAHHHHH! Sounds like Pandora's Box. You have to be careful with this guy's, you might not be able to get the genie back in the bottle. There is a marina on Lake ray Hubbard forgot which one it's on the west side i believe. Says "No fishing in the marina area then cited a dallas city ordinanane". I have some brush piles out on the lake and I too would like to by some water property then put up no fishing signs in the middle of the lake. You cant trespass but if its connected to the lake I dont think they can or should be able to say no. As long as I keep my arms and legs in my ride then I say tuff cuz you don't and cant own the water. Would you complain if all the residecne of a cove on the lake put up a barrier for only there use?

That's B S !
Get me a Warden.

They can't stop you as long as you don't touch their property.

I believe this has been settled by TPWD. Any part of public water is open to the public. Seems there have been numerous marinas that tried to prohibit fishing in the marina area. I also believe that TPWD has jurisdiction on this.

Maybe his little cutout will fill up with hydrilla........ lol.... ya right, on Conroe!

LITTORAL RIGHTS Water rights associated with the ownership of land on oceanfront or coastal regions. Littoral rights are associated with those rights on large bodies of water. Littoral rights, as with Riparian water rights, are limited typically by ending at the mean vegetation line. Littoral owners may enjoy the use of the water as long as it does not interfere with the ownership of other owners' water rights and does not impair or alter the course or flow of water. Governmental powers are in place which restrict the use of littoral rights and brokers and appraisers must be aware how these limitations influence value estimates.

Sounds to me like he is breaking some laws, and by dredging out his land he lost rights to it. The same thing happens on coastal waters. People who own waterfront property constantly gain and lose square footage of property as the water-side of property is usually not surveyed and is simply defined by the vegetation line. This is my understanding of littoral rights. Riparian rights are different on different bodies of water, for example, Blanco river is owned to the center of the riverbed.

seems as if the guy just lost part of his land..... he could reclaim it by filling it back in- but he just opened up a navigable waterway..... if the boat will float, its navigable!

with as much money as the guy has, I am sure the wardens will tell you its not worth the headache dealing with the guy... best just to walk away.

Did it look like this?

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&am...1&encType=1

someone has a lil too much money...

The biggest problem your going to run into is the guys wallet is probably bigger than your own. If you piss with him too much he may decide to try to find out just how deap your wallet goes before you start to bleed too.

Legally and litterally he probably has no ground to stand on. But in the end how much money can you afford to pay a lawyer to defend your actions and rights if the guy decides to come after you with his lawyers?

Business owners face this decission every day. I have a number of customers that I would love to market to, and could probably get easily. But by the time I got done defending the lawsuits that the bigger companies would throw at me in an effort to discourage me from going after those customers I'd be deap in a hole near bankruptcy.

My uncle was a wise man, and used a lot of "sayings" to teach me lessons when I was little. One of his sayins was to ask ne "How much are you willing to spend to prove your right?" Another was was "being right is great, but the one with the most money and willingness to spend that money will ultimately be the one to PROVE he is right"

So let me dream for a minute about having that much money (and waste more time typing). *IF* I had that much money and simply wanted to keep you off of that piece of water, then I would start simply write your TX numbers down and ask pay my lawyers to get restraining order issued against you. Restraining orders are easy to get, and finding a judge to sign off on this would be easy because the restraining order would read 500 or 1000 fee away from my property line, NOT away from me or my dock... My cost a few hundred dollars at this point.

Your cost depends at this point, if you own firearms you are now in violation of the laws if you keep them in you home. If you choose to fight the validity of the restraining order your cost if your lucky is only a few hundred dollars for a couple of hours of the attorneys time.

If you spend the money to fight that I might decide to step it up a bit and file a civil suit against you claiming with some complicated legalese amounting to your obstructing my view of the lake or something stupid like this. BUT I instruct my lawyer NEVER to allow this into a courtroom, but to drag it out and make it as expensive as possible for you by issuing subpenas a bunch of people and expert witness etc... I instruct my lawyer to deposition all of them and ask a bunch of meaningless questions. This will have the affect of forcing your attorney to sit in on every one of these depositions so that JUST in case I ask a meaningful question he is there to rebut it. At the last minute before this goes in front of a judge I simply drop the case.

If you keep insisting I reopen a few more lawsuits like this until I find the point that either it's not worth the money to me to keep you out so I simply plow dirt back into the hole or you back off and realize the rest of the lake is free to fish in and this little area is too expensive to mess with.

be a lot easier just to buy the landowner a bottle of scotch and hand it to him one day, and tell him thanks for letting you fish around his property...... he may even tell you that you have permission to come behind his "fence" may even let you put a little brush in there too

It's "Tony Montana"... maing...

Inigo Montoya is the "joo killed my father, prepare to die" fellow.