7-3 SS Access

 Courtesy gets you in.

 Our outdoor correspondent Josh Mills  gives us a great tip today about accessing areas where you would like to fish or hunt. “Whether you are hunting or fishing, but I am going to speak specifically about fishing is that we really owe a debt to the landowners that I’m nice enough to let us on their land or corridor through their land to the river or some other access that you need to enjoy the outdoors. A couple of friends of mine have recently lost access to a coastal river because they used the landowner for years and years and years and then some, what I will describe as not nice person, used the landowners property as a personal toilet and left wrappers and trash all over the place. So the actions of a few cost a whole lot of people amazing access to a fishing hole. So what is our role in this. Number 1, don’t trespass. Do your best to knock on a door and respect their right to grant you access. On a river in most cases you are legally allowed to be with in the high water mark. But it is always good to go and talk to that person. I remember up on a river there was a hole that I really wanted to fish. I had to do a major hike in under the watermark in order to get in there. But one day I went in and knocked on the guys door and he said no but I am welcome to park in a different area. That made my hike a lot easier. That day, I caught a hatchery steelhead, went up and sliced it up and gave him some fillets. He was very grateful and now I just walk up his driveway rather than being sneaky.