Canal Fishing in corpus

Last night me and my dad decided we wanted to go fish the causeway in between Corpus and Portland. Well we did not catch anything there so we decided to go fish the lights in the canals off rincon channel. One of the homeowners came out and was mad that we were fishing the canals. He said that the canals were not public waters and that we were trespassing, and we need to leave. He said that they pay for the dredging of the canals, even though I know the port of corpus christi pays for the dredging. So needless to say this made me mad. We ended up leaving just to keep face. This morning first thing I call into the Texas Park and Wildlife Law Enforcement office here in corpus. Their response was that if any body of waters are fed by a public source then that body of water is public waters. We can not let home owners scare us into thinking they own the waters. We need to fight back and keep public waters public.

I agree y'all did nothing wrong fishing the canals.


There are some waters along the coast (very few mind you, and none that I know of around the Corpus Area) that are tidal but are not considered public waters. Typically it's a manmade cut connecting public waters to private land to create a back lake/marsh area. Some of the WMAs have areas that are off limits to all recreational activities as well. 99.9% of the time if you can float it you can fish it, but there are some situations where that's not true.

Not sure what you mean by fighting back. I would just move on and fish the other channels. If you're going to hold your ground and the owner is continuing to harass you then contact the local game warden and report the land owner for violation of the Sportsman's Right Act.

It seems like more and more public waters is being called private. Im just tired of this happening and people just roll over and take it like its the truth

Do you have any more examples of public waters being called private? I have and will spend tons of time kayak fishing along the coast and have never had a situation come up where I was told I was fishing private waters. I just don't see this as a huge issue.

Now, public access points being claimed private by neighboring land owners is a big issue, and that happens not only on the coast but also inland with rivers.

If your boat can float (not dragged) into a place then you can lawfully fish there.
This includes marinas and docks.
You cannot step off your boat and you can't damage property.
If someone harasses you when you are fishing they are breaking the law not you.

This is from personal experience.