River rules

River rules

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Editor in chief of Outdoor Life, Alex Robinson talks about the rules of the river.

This story explores the different river access rules in different states. So we had a writer,

Christine Peterson, and she's based in Wyoming, which has stricter set of river access rules than its neighboring state, Montana.

So Christine fished her home waters and kind of reported out what the access reality is there, which some of the water is public in Wyoming. And you can wade it and other water is private. And unless you have permission or you hire a guide, you can't access that water. You can't fish it. On the flip side, in Montana, essentially all the water is public. So as long as you stay in the stream, you can wade right through public land. You can wade as far as you want and fish. So that really opens up more opportunities for fishermen. But it also, in some ways opens up a little more potential conflict between private landowners and fishermen who are in public waters. And, you know, there's pros and cons for each. But as our author kind of found out, if you're really in it for fly fishing, if you're a serious fisherman or woman, the more access, the better, because it gives you more opportunity. It spreads out the pressure more. And honestly, it makes it more fun.

I would have never imagined that.

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