The United States is full of expansive public lands. Even the smallest states have enough public land to make the consummate outdoor enthusiast happy. The western United States are especially full of long stretches of public land with seemingly no end in sight. However, as the world gets smaller and more and more people develop untamed land, those areas may begin to shrink or at least they will require a more careful step.
Navigating public land, especially when it abuts private property, can be tricky. It is easy to become so lost in the pursuit of fish down a river that you lose your bearings and end up on private property. You don’t want that and neither does the property owner. However, you can navigate public land with ease provided you use the right tools and understand the regulations in the area you are fishing. In addition to the tips listed below, check out other resources such as the Bureau of Land Management Maps.
Our 5 Tips for Navigating Public Land
- Research the trespassing laws in your area
This is possibly the most important tip I will provide. Knowing your trespassing laws will allow you to know where you can go and what the consequences of going to the wrong property are. Some states, such as Massachusetts, have laws in place that allow you to enter private property provided it is not posted. This means that if there is no obvious posted sign, or stretch of posted signs, you may enter private property. I would not recommend taking a stroll through someone’s backyard to gain access to a honey hole, but this does open stretches of rivers, lakes, or any other body of water far behind someone’s house that just so happens to fall on private property.
- Know water ownership laws
Water ownership regulations are important in just about any body of water. When it comes to rivers, some states allow landowners to own the land under the river but not the river itself. This means that you can float a river without trespassing, but the moment you exit your watercraft and start wading, you are on private property. Some land ownership also stops at the bank line nullifying the previous point.
When it comes to saltwater fishing, most states classify public land as the land below the mean high-water mark or mean-high tide. Anything above mean-high tide belongs to the landowner of whichever parcel it is on. This allows anglers to enter an area through public land and fish along an entire waterfront provided they never cross the mean-high water mark. These rules are not ubiquitous across the country, but they are examples of possible state or local regulations. Be sure you are privy to them.
- Know the type of public land you are attempting to access
Not all public land is created equal, and some public land is not accessible for recreation. Public land will generally fall into three buckets: 1. Federal. 2. State. 3. Local/City/County. If you find federal, state, or local land then you can likely access it without consequence, but some restrictions may apply depending on how the land is managed. Some public land may also require you to carry a fishing or hunting license (which you should already possess as an angler). This is often restricted to state land if the state relies on tags and licenses for outdoor recreation funding, but it is important to know because some states require that you carry a hard copy of your license.
Federal land such as national parks and national forests follow different rules and parks and forests differ slightly in how they are managed. National parks may have restrictions on access to certain areas which vary from park to park. Both national parks and national forests may have long stretches of areas off limits to vehicular access including cars, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc. It is important to note this so that you know how far you may have to hike to find a fishing spot. Additionally, the accessibility of a location will dictate the emergency response time should something bad happen.
- Use the FlyFishFinder app.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the most obvious way to navigate public land. The FlyFishFinder app clearly maps private and public land in accordance with the location of bodies of water. The app streamlines the process of checking online parcel mappers and it keeps all your mapping needs in one place. The app will save your most desired pins and you can add notes to yourself (and others if you choose to forward that pin to a friend) about how to access certain locations that may appear to be inaccessible due to trespassing laws or other limitations. Outside of understanding local regulations and doing a little bit of research, FlyFishFinder can be your one-stop shop for navigating public land.
Color coded land classifications displaying the ‘Open Access’ lands across all 50 states!
- Share public land
Public land is for everyone, and we all need to know how to share it. I am not saying you should scream to the hills where your favorite honey hole is, but it is important to make sure that when on the water, you respect other anglers’ space and you respect that other anglers have just as much right to public land as you. We all know the well-known spots that get crowded, especially on weekends and holidays, but if you take the tips in this article, navigating public land will become a simple task leading you to new locations that receive less pressure and provide you with solitude.
