According to my fisherman husband, the law is quite clear about public
access to watercourses in Washington. I may be wrong in some details,
so check before you try it, but this is how I remember what he told me:


All navigable streams are open to use by the public, whether or not they
flow through private land. The definition of navigable, dating back
quite a long time, is quite generous: if, at any time of year, the
stream can float a freight canoe (which draws very little water) it's
navigable. In practice, this means that just about every
reasonably-sized stream in Washington is navigable. If a fisherman (or
birder) is wading or floating in the actual stream, the landowner cannot
prevent him/her from passing through the private property. Many
property owners hate this and may threaten and carry on, but they can't
prevent you from wading the stream. If you have to pass through the
property to GET to the river, of course that's different. Responsible
fishermen ask permission, which some landowners grant and some don't. I
know at one place my husband goes fishing, the landowner has a can on
the gate and fisherman leave a few dollars to pay for access to the
river. In another, the custom is to leave a bottle of whiskey for the
landowner who allows fishermen to walk through his property!

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
<RachelWL at msn.com>