On a lake I fish a lot there is a portion way up the river that the property owners have up signs saying private property don't go past here basically. If you are on navigable water how can they legally keep you out? I understand being on land would be a nono but they don't own the water right?

If it's a public lake and not some special area, no they can't. Some docks on Lake Austin have signs that say, do not cast around dock, we fish those hard if someone is around...

Now we ran into this while duck hunting. You can no venture out of the creek,river,lake beds when the water is up. So if you can get to a slew that you usually can't. It is illegal. That is how it was explained to me.

I have not checked all aspects of related Texas law, but I do know the part Andrew explained is correct. I believe the answer is tied to what water is navigable at a certain (normal) water level. You can't go into what can't be accessed at that level or lower. This makes it legal to restrict access to a creek drain above a certain elevation, for instance.

Another aspect relates to whether an area was flooded via private dredging. I have not confirmed that this applies in Texas, but it does in a number of other states. For example, I might dredge 1 acre of my owned land adjacent to a public water body so that it floods so I can make a private marina. In some states, that area is deemed private; access can be legally restricted. If someone knows with certainty if this applies in Texas, please comment.

not sure about TX but in MN public water is that public, also anybody's dock on public water is also public ( so you could pull up to there dock and get out of your boat and fish off there dock) crazy ha.

I know that on Granbury back in the 80s a judge ruled that a landowner Could keep the public out of a creek on the river. There is still a gate guilt that goes across the entrance to the creek but it stays open now. The original landowner died and the new owners don't care if you fish in there.

Depends on where you re at. In Louisiana the courts have sided with the land owners in many, many cases.

This exact question came up last week. I wife was doing a web site for a fishing guide in Louisiana and he called last Friday and said to stop working on the site. The young guide said that he was fishing on his home lake in Louisiana next to a dock and the owner came out and told him he could not fish there and needed to leave right away. The fishing guide did not move fast enough for the owner and he pulled a shotgun on him and started to fire two shoots in the air and then fired right at him. The owner did miss him but it scared the guide so bad that he told me he was selling he boat and all his gear.

I could not believe what I was hearing. I check into it and it looks like in Louisiana that it is true that the land owner has the right to the water in front of his dock. The young guide is a religious guy and felt like being a guide is not what god wanted him to be. I tried to talk him out of that ideal but there was no talking to him. I think that is a very sad story.

SM

I fish both texas and La often and in Texas they do not own the water. In general if you can get to it by boat you can fish it. In LA most of the water in the state is private.

9094 , I have seen the gate you are talking about , never went thur there , did not why it was keeping boat traffic out . Part of gate is still there .

Louisiana is a very backward state. I still sneak in and snaek back out from time to time. Gotta think the shooting incident during the Classic down on the Delta has contributed to BASS not returning to NOLA.

There is legislation in the works that could open up the water in LA. Hopefully it gets passed.

They advertise it as the sportsman's paradise but the average sportsman cant legally access most of it.

Lake travis has a bunch of "No Motor Boat" Bouys set out hundreds of yards off the bank. And people regularly come out and yell at you if you venture past. How is that legal? Is it City Ordinance? Me and my partner were at Bass Champs and the last buoy said "No Wake" so we ventured in and a 300 lb black lady came down to the bank and started screaming at us. I tried to tell her the buoy she was in question about was a no wake and I could in fact be there. She kept screaming "Outside the Buoys!!!" It was hilarious. I looked at my partner and said "I just paid $300 to get yelled at by a large black woman. Its getting ridiculous...