We Need More Public Water and Access

[JYarb]

All the talk of growing the sport and nothing about providing more fishable water. The public water we have is already too crowded. Then there is the problem of lack of access for those who have to fish from the bank. I live close to Wheeler Lake and there is a pumping station there where I catch shad in the spring. Countless times I see fathers or mothers bring their kids there to fish and very rarely do they catch anything. I've had some ask me if there is any place they can take their kids to catch fish from the bank. Unfortunately, the answer is no. We need some fishing piers and areas where adults can take kids to fish and have some hope of catching something.

I wish more cities would do what Cullman, AL has done. The have built two new water supply reservoirs and have one old one where the public can fish. The old one, Lake George, has no horsepower limit since it is no longer used as a water supply lake. The other two have a 25 hp restriction. The newest of the two is stocked with Florida bass and spots were already present I congratulate the Cullman city leaders for having the foresight for meeting future water needs while also providing much needed fishing water. Certainly, there is a lot of expense involved in constructing such lakes, but the water demand will be there in the future.

[brnzbaklvr]

Public land has the same issues...There are millions of public acres that are land locked by private property with no public access..
.It's all about money..Every time they try to build a pier or a new public access it is a war with lake owners....We just spent a year getting a new public access built on a large lake in Northern Michigan...It took the courts and thousands of dollars of DNR money for litigation to get the ramp built..Crystal lake by Beulah Michigan

[lakebouef5]

If anyone thinks they have it bad...come on down to Louisana. 80% of our wetlands and waters are privately owned. Millions of acres. This is the only state, where someone can own tidal water. Much of it is now posted, and why
BASS refuses to ever come back.

[basscla]

Come north. Plenty of lakes, good fishing and not crowded. From now till ice up, I may not see a another boat while I am out.

[catch5]

Until they start building more lakes, they can stick growing the sport you know where. Lol. Our lakes are so crowded anymore it almost takes the fun out of it for me.

[Brady bass]

Come north. Plenty of lakes, good fishing and not crowded. From now till ice up, I may not see a another boat while I am out.

fishing is starting to get good right now. The next 5 or 6 weeks are fun. Sux about privately owned water, I've never heard of such a thing. Great Lakes spoil a guy I guess

[tcesni]

And the jet skis and wake boats are so bad I'm tempted to try night fishing, except I can't see worth a darn in the dark.

[lakebouef5]

Come north. Plenty of lakes, good fishing and not crowded. From now till ice up, I may not see a another boat while I am out.

I still have a lot of water to fish legally...they cannot claim major lakes, bays, and natural waterways, and these are where I catch most of my fish.

[Phrog Phil]

Every year it seems like there is more “private” up here.

[wentbroketryingtogopro]

All the talk of growing the sport and nothing about providing more fishable water. The public water we have is already too crowded. Then there is the problem of lack of access for those who have to fish from the bank. I live close to Wheeler Lake and there is a pumping station there where I catch shad in the spring. Countless times I see fathers or mothers bring their kids there to fish and very rarely do they catch anything. I've had some ask me if there is any place they can take their kids to catch fish from the bank. Unfortunately, the answer is no. We need some fishing piers and areas where adults can take kids to fish and have some hope of catching something.

I wish more cities would do what Cullman, AL has done. The have built two new water supply reservoirs and have one old one where the public can fish. The old one, Lake George, has no horsepower limit since it is no longer used as a water supply lake. The other two have a 25 hp restriction. The newest of the two is stocked with Florida bass and spots were already present I congratulate the Cullman city leaders for having the foresight for meeting future water needs while also providing much needed fishing water. Certainly, there is a lot of expense involved in constructing such lakes, but the water demand will be there in the future.

I agree 100%.If you think it is a problem in alabama with the lack of access fishing the public lake waters and rivers come to ky.I grew up in the 60's and 70's fishing the big sandy river from the bank.This river feeds into the ohio river.Good fishing then,good fishing now.Only problem back then very little access,fast forward almost 50 years later guess what, same problem.Very little access.If you are handicap you are screwed.Even today if you want to fish the river you better take a trip to lowes,because you will need chainsaws,weedeaters,shovels,etc.just to get to the river bank.Then you have to hope the bank is not too steep for the safety of your kids.We have 3 small lakes within an hour of each other.Probably 80% of all the water has very little access to the bank fisherman.If you are handicap,again you are screwed.I bet the number one reason that most people do not fish is because the lack of access to the water(especially the non-boaters) I know it costs a lot of money to have handicap areas built and to build better access areas to our river banks and our lakes but how much money has been wasted in this country the last 50 years that would have been well spent on these type of projects.Shame on our politicians

[brnzbaklvr]

Until they start building more lakes, they can stick growing the sport you know where. Lol. Our lakes are so crowded anymore it almost takes the fun out of it for me.

I think you will find fishermen numbers have dropped in most states over the years..
https://asafishing.org/facts-figures...-sales-report/

[Hoot]

Until they start building more lakes, they can stick growing the sport you know where. Lol. Our lakes are so crowded anymore it almost takes the fun out of it for me.

[grandbassslayer]

Not sure what all the hubub is about. I was out yesterday and only saw 3 other fisherman.

[Fishysam]

Come north. Plenty of lakes, good fishing and not crowded. From now till ice up, I may not see a another boat while I am out.

Shhhhh. Eventually it will be crowded here, and I won't be able to say 25 bass is a bad day

[BMCD]

Hunting season in Texas, means you get to fish where u want to.

[River-Bandit]

If anyone thinks they have it bad...come on down to Louisana. 80% of our wetlands and waters are privately owned. Millions of acres. This is the only state, where someone can own tidal water. Much of it is now posted, and why
BASS refuses to ever come back.

80 percent of coastal wetlands are privately owned right ??? not 80 percent of the water/lakes/rivers in the state ,,,Not really a big thing for me one way or the other as i don't have any problem finding somewhere to fish , As far as BASS,, I could care less if they ever come back ,,

[Hoot]

80 percent of coastal wetlands are privately owned right ??? not 80 percent of the water/lakes/rivers in the state ,,,Not really a big thing for me one way or the other as i don't have any problem finding somewhere to fish , As far as BASS,, I could care less if they ever come back ,,

Evidently life still goes on in Louisiana after B.A.S.S just as it has in Green Bay, WI

[KYSkipper]

I think you will find fishermen numbers have dropped in most states over the years..
https://asafishing.org/facts-figures...-sales-report/

Yes. The number of hunters and fishermen are both dropping. Both as a total and as a percentage of the population. Fish and Wildlife agencies who's budgets depend on the sale of fishing and hunting licenses are quick to point that out everytime the bum a raise to satisfy their ever increasing government agency appetite for funding. That said, they waste the majority of it and do little with it to help create access. They do very little boat ramp building, public land acquisition or management. They basically fund studies on such stuff to build cushy government jobs and very little gets done.

Here about 10 years ago a very wealthy individual purchased the largest houseboat Somerset Boats had ever built or could build given the size of the plant. He put it on the local lake and spent a blue gum fortune getting it there. I'm not sure which government official palms got greased but he was allowed to close a ramp down for a month while the boat was assembled, bring in equipment to lengthen and widen the ramp, cut down trees on the side of the road for miles through the Daniel Boone National Forest where the Forest Service can't trim a tree without an act of congress. When he got it to the Marina he had to pay to extend the docks to accommodate it. He got in a tiz when the Corps and Forest Service would not allow him to land his helicopter on the boat and there was a very serious attempt on his part to buy the entire dock and turn it private. This lake allows no private access to it. Surrounding houses can not have a dock or access the lake from their homes. The thing that stopped the deal is this: At the dock, the ramp does not go with the lease for the Marina. The ramp was built with fisherman dollars by the KDFWR and it belongs to the fishermen. I can tell you there was a very serious effort to close that ramp. He did not want the dock without the ramp. I was on the LKS board at the time and fought it pretty hard in Frankfort. In fact I got threats from this individual for doing so. I figure he could have purchased me at the time and had my body done away with. We did however prevail and the ramp is still there for public use.

My comments about the ramp at Douglas Dam are pretty serious. In the last 4 or 5 years the campground there has grown leaps and bounds. That ramp has always had a lot of traffic on tournament weekends and the grassy area has always been used as overflow. A lot of it today has campers sitting on it. Back in the spring I fished a tournament there on a Saturday. There were 7 tournaments going out of the dam that weekend and parking was a tee total cluster. If that campground grows much more the grass area will be gone and something will have to give. Some of these tournaments that used to go out of other ramps on the lake have been forced to congregate at 2 ramps. The dam and Dandridge. It's getting crowded.

I've said this before and been made fun of for it, but I can tell you where the problem is. We have no political representation at the state or national level. When the FLW rolled BASS over on the local tournaments and the clubs died out and every weekend angler thought he was going to be a pro making millions bass fishing we abandoned our clubs. Nothing gets the attention of the Fish and Wildlife Agency like 300 bass fishermen from 30 to 40 clubs around the state showing up at a meeting and making their demands known. That's how the NWTF got them to spend millions restoring turkey. That's how the RMEF got them to spend 30 million in this state restoring elk. That's how DU gets their way in Western Kentucky. Instead of protecting our interests with the influence the clubs had in the 70's and 80's we prefer to chase money in tournaments.

Some of you read about me coaching archery for kids. Centershot Archery was part of an initiative by a guy named Robert Fraley. He is a past Sportsman of the Year in the state of Kentucky. He was also on the League board during my tenure there. Bob came up with this idea called "No Child Left Indoors". We were looking at stats then showing the decline in hunting and fishing. One of the things we ended up attributing it to was kids preferring to play video games rather than get outdoors and do things outdoors. Centershot archery was hatched to extend archery in the schools beyond the limited number of kids the school could accommodate. There were other initiatives. Myself and a few other guys hatched a plan for youth turkey hunting. We created a contest. Kids were paired together in a team of 2 and each could enter a turkey to be scored. The idea was if they woke up on Youth Weekend and it was 30 degrees and raining, the fact that they had a team mate depending on them would motivate them to go regardless of weather or mood. We had them draw for partners at a meeting where we recruited a nationally known turkey caller to demonstrate calling to them. The first year we were able to recruit Tim Farmer into the deal. One kid through a drawing got to hunt with Tim, his hunt filmed and shown on the KET show Kentucky Afield. This bass a month thing I do also became part of it. I wrote an article then on my now late friend who's bass a month streak went 38 years and a few months right up to the month before he passed away from cancer. The idea, give people motivation to get out more often hoping they'll take their children with them.

I could go on about this topic, but so far I've probably wrote more than most want to read on it. Yes, our lakes are crowded. Yes, access for fishing is being squeezed out. Yes, that treatment isn't the same for pontoons, ski boats, and jet skis which a lot of belong to lakefront residents and campers. The powers that be are not going to listen to us individually until we band together and show them it's not just half a dozen people griping about something.

[Bassin08]

More and more lakes here in Wisconsin are being controlled by Lake Associations. We have a 1,000 acre lake that is close to us. The LA with the blessing of the DNR just limited the public access to 34 boats on Saturday, Sunday, and Holiday’s. They actually chain the launch ramps off once the 34 boats have launched. The property owners are leasing dock space to the public, which is in direct violation of the law. The property owners own the two parking lots, plus they put no parking signs on all streets and highways within a mile or two of the launch.

[River-Bandit]

Evidently life still goes on in Louisiana after B.A.S.S just as it has in Green Bay, WI

Yes Sir ,Life rolls right on with out BASS ,,,,,, and you can not swing a dead cat with hitting somewhere to fish here,,some folks down this way get all spun out over this but for most of us its just a non issue