DuckSouth.com

I need all the info that I can get my hands on about what is and is not navigable water on the Louisiana side of the river. I would also like to know of someone to talk to that is knowledgeable on this subject. People are trying to run us out of our favorite hole and I need to know 100% for sure that I am right before I go back. Thanks for any help......

http://www.louisiana.gov/wps/portal/.cm ... 55/.s/3958

You can go here and search the LA state web page for the info you desire. You might also want to check federal law too.

Don't know about La. but in Mississippi its in the state constitution:

All rivers, creeks and bayous in this state, twenty-five (25) miles in length, and having sufficient depth and width of water for thirty (30) consecutive days in the year to float a steamboat with carrying capacity of two hundred (200) bales of cotton, are navigable waters of this state and considered public highways.

Where do we find a steamship with 200 bales of cotton??? Delta Ducks back yard?8)

Call my dad. He got a ticket for riding 2 dogs, and a 6 pack of beer across a flooded field on the big black. He didn't have a gun, he was just running up birds that had rafted up in the middle of a large field to get them moveing again. BOOM, ticket!

They had the big navigable water dispute. It got dismised in the end.

Floodwater is not public. Only water within the natural banks is public(on a public waterway, of course). When you motor out of the banks and into a flooded field, you are trespassing.

Wingman

Ah, yes, the old debate about mean high watermark, where is the bank? and so on.

My father fought this one for years with a certain outfitter up around Eagle Lake. The long and short of it was, if you are within the mean high watermark you are within the "banks". A few of the land owners will stil try to bulldog you into leaving, but if you are certain of where you are and they do not let you alone, just call the wardens on them for hunter harrassment, if you are in the MS side, LA is a different matter. That fight was never made absolutly clear, you see LA thinks their laws superceede those of the federal govt. The feds don't agree, problem is to get it that far you have to spend a few pennies fighting local courts.

I will say this, Po Monkey is right, fought this one for a while til it got so crowded I just quit hunting those areas and ventured farther out into the middle on nowhere. Crowds draw conflict, I don't go hunting to get into a pissing match with other huters or landowners.

Tupe

Call the local office of the Coast Guard and ask them. I'm assuming your hunting on in a old runout or something of the main channel. They will beable to tell you if its part of the river or not.

dont ask, dont tell

the doc

creek that runs out of the main channel of the river and into a 15-20 acre lake and then out into the woods from the lake. It is navigable @ 20' below flood stage. The local Louisiana warden says that he cannot make me leave. All he can do is make note that I was there and check me to make sure that I am legal. The notes he makes will be used against me if they take me to court, and he says that the landowners have been winning these battles if they can prove that they are paying taxes on the land under the water? I would like to know right or wrong the law. Is there anyone in Ms or La that even knows???? If I am wrong I will stay out, but if I am right I will fight it as long as I can afford it.........

sounds like your on private property to Me.