fishinwrench

I worry that some day in the future they'll find out that creating & stocking hybrid stripers was a "mistake".......and it will be too late to reverse it.

When I was a boy scout the MDC partnered with our troop, and they had us planting Bradford pear trees all over our town. 😅 Hauled them in on flatbed trucks, and provided shovels, rakes, and gloves.

Taxpayer dollars paid for it. I'm sure the guys operating the loaders and dump trucks got paid.

Yeah.....But it will still cost you plenty (more than a trespassing fine) because a lawyer representing you is required.

Hell yes ! 👍😀

My daughters, and all of their friends, are WAY MORE responsible and forward seeking than I or any of my aquaintances were when we were their age. No denying that ! 👍

It doesn't require "lab work" to notice what some landowners will allow to be thrown into a creekbed. Especially as they age, are lacking anyone to help them, and they assume that nobody can see it. Personally I've reported an abandoned tractor & bobcat that was leaking hydraulic fluid, oil, and fuel, causing an oil-slick that was easily noticable just shy of 2 miles downstream of his property line. DNR busted him and revoked his ability to sell gravel. BTW, dredging a creek for gravel and SELLING IT is legally considered "commerce".

Allowing land owners to privately own sections of streams..... would be a terrible decision for any state to stand behind. That stream leaves the property eventually. So by doing so the state would carry the burden of investigating, issuing warrants, and potentially holding that landowner liable for any future water quality issues downstream. Keeping streams open to the public, and standing behind that as a state law, helps ensure that landowner practices don't cross the environmental line.

At the MDC access here near my place they subcontract the upkeep, which always confuses me because MDC has crews, employed by them, that mow, weedeat, ect. Nevertheless this crew of 2-3 guys show up bi-weekly and spend all day tidying up the place. The same crew does the grass upkeep, leaf blowing, and parking lot sweeping at the local DG, the post office, and at the bank. They do a fine job 👍 They even cleaned up a pile of dead stinking carp that some idiot bowfishers dumped. A separate local septic service tends to the outhouses.....they pump them and power wash them periodically. You never see MDC do anything, but drive thru occasionally.

Yeah anyplace open to the public is going to get trashed. It's almost worth risking a trespassing charge just to not have to wade through empty Fireball shooters, dirty diapers, and discarded appliances.

In my case nobody called in and reported it, or complained at all......A deputy, with nothing better to do, saw my truck and went all tactical, tracked me down probably thinking that I was tending to a crop of ganja. I think he was pissed because he got his shoes muddy for nothing. I still fish that stretch a couple times per year...... I'm just a lot sneakier about it. 😉

Would have gotten me out of a trespassing charge.....AND it would guarantee that I was free to access the stream. The crappy part was that it would also free the stream to EVERYONE 🙄 which at the time included a group of meth-heads and general partiers. I wasn't in the mindset to foot the bill to free them up a convenient party zone.....even if I could have afforded it. The cool part, however, is that word got out that I was preparing to challenge the issue, and my charge got dropped. I didn't have to pay....or show up to court.😊

Back in 2006 a lawyer told me to be prepared for 5-7k

Here is what was explained to me.....or how I interpreted it: Any stream in Missouri that you'd probably really like to float & fish CAN legally be floated/fished.....BUT it could cost you thousands of dollars in unrecoverable legal fees, and numerous days in court, in order to win the case, should you get charged with trespassing and decide to fight it. Not many people have the time & money to devote to things like that, and that is why the gray areas of case law still exist. In essence, someone being charged for trespassing at that general location, pleading guilty and paying the fine, at anytime in the past, has unofficially set the protocol in that county court.....even though it may be technically unlawful. If you could round up 8-10 people who would agree to throw 1000.00 apiece into a legal fund..... you could almost certainly open up any decent sized stream in this state to the general public.

Sure does. And being close enough to a strike to realize that is a scary ear piercing experience. I've been close enough to SMELL IT.

If you are on a stream and a landowner confronts you, and tells you to leave, your best move is to be as friendly as you can and just LEAVE. You can call the sheriff or MDC and report it when you get back to your truck if you want, and let THEM sort it out, but streamside arguments are NEVER going to benefit you or your family..... regardless of what firearm you're packing.

After witnessing the actions, and listening to & reading comments from people since this last election......I don't automatically trust the sanity of ANYONE ! We have worse problems in this country right now than the price of eggs !

Suspended in open water, and around brush in 9-15'..... but not on the banks yet.

If your vehicle runs off the road and ends up in the ditch you're not gonna be charged with "trespassing"........but if you drive off the road and start cutting ruts 4-wheeling out in a field then YOU ARE 😅

I was told it is a distance equal to the distance from the center of the road to the end of the shoulder.....on both sides.

Oh I believe you 100% I went through a big stream access ordeal quite a few years ago in my county, and I got a first hand education on it. Of course in my county every ditch leads to Lake O......so you're automatically allowed to be in the water (and on the land) up to the elevation of 660.0 and you would be surprised how far up a creek that actually can be.

That sounds reasonable, and that's why I said "check with that particular county prosecutor", but in this particular county that's the rule when it comes to county road bridges.....and access to the streams that they cross. Straight from the prosecutors mouth. Now this doesn't always imply that you are free to wade up/down the stream for miles.....but you can absolutely get your feet wet.

It isn't a what, it's a who. By all means check with that particular county prosecutor. Do you know of anyone that has ever been charged with trespassing for accessing a stream at a power line crossing? If so, whose property were they supposedly trespassing on ?

If a bridge area also has power lines crossing nearby.....then there is a definite easement. And access is (or should be) legally permitted.

This is why I avoid going to any doctors for anything. I've had muscle, cartilage, and nerve tears in both knees and one shoulder, a partially detached retina, a severely damaged tendon in a foot, and numerous other more minor injuries which allegedly were going to require surgery to correct......but I neglected to schedule operations for any of them, and miraculously all of those injuries healed themselves eventually. It took awhile, and there was undeniably some wicked pain and sleepless nights suffering because of it, but once I recovered there was no issues. The retina ordeal was by far the scariest (billboards looked like bowties for awhile, and round things looked like Easter eggs) but after living with it for about 4-5 months it healed itself. 👍