Public Water (Oxbows and Streams) in MS
Public Water (Oxbows and Streams) in MS
Last edited by Wingman on Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:43 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Re-read the other long thread and I pretty much explained everything I know about it there. http://www.ducksouth.com/phpbb/viewtopi ... ght=oxbows
All I know is that every oxbow is different. I just checked the topo on one particular one, and the natural bank is 3500 feet through the willows from where the water is now. Let the river rise a little and all of this will be submerged. You can look on a satellite map and see the difference in vegetation. You can really tell where the natural bank is way back in the timber. That 3500' feet of timber is willows that have grown up in what used to be the bottom of the old channel. You've got to remember that some of these oxbows were created by man back in the 30's and 40's. There's 70 years of siltation and timber growth in the old river bed. The deepest parts of the channel are what holds water in the summer but the winter rains will innundate that timber that has grown in the exposed bottom. When it's dry, you can't walk through that timber, but when it's wet, you can legally wade or float anywhere in there. When the water gets higher than the bank at that 3500' mark, going past it will be trespassing. Floodwater that is outside the natural banks is not public water. The bottom isn't flat; in some cases it is in steps. The outside of the bends are the deepest and the inside is the shallowest. The outside natural bank will usually be very obvious...a very sharp rise in elevation from the water level. The inside will be more subtle because of years of silt deposits in the slower moving current when the river used to run through what is now the oxbow. Get a good topo map or even better, topo software that you can zoom in and see the lines of elevation. It will be very plain in most cases where the earth drops off sharply into the old river channel.
This diagram is rather silly, but this is what I'm talking about.
All I know is that every oxbow is different. I just checked the topo on one particular one, and the natural bank is 3500 feet through the willows from where the water is now. Let the river rise a little and all of this will be submerged. You can look on a satellite map and see the difference in vegetation. You can really tell where the natural bank is way back in the timber. That 3500' feet of timber is willows that have grown up in what used to be the bottom of the old channel. You've got to remember that some of these oxbows were created by man back in the 30's and 40's. There's 70 years of siltation and timber growth in the old river bed. The deepest parts of the channel are what holds water in the summer but the winter rains will innundate that timber that has grown in the exposed bottom. When it's dry, you can't walk through that timber, but when it's wet, you can legally wade or float anywhere in there. When the water gets higher than the bank at that 3500' mark, going past it will be trespassing. Floodwater that is outside the natural banks is not public water. The bottom isn't flat; in some cases it is in steps. The outside of the bends are the deepest and the inside is the shallowest. The outside natural bank will usually be very obvious...a very sharp rise in elevation from the water level. The inside will be more subtle because of years of silt deposits in the slower moving current when the river used to run through what is now the oxbow. Get a good topo map or even better, topo software that you can zoom in and see the lines of elevation. It will be very plain in most cases where the earth drops off sharply into the old river channel.
This diagram is rather silly, but this is what I'm talking about.
Last edited by Wingman on Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ISAIAH 40:31
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Po Monkey Lounger
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Wingman, I have a question
What if you own private property , not accesible from a public waterway but does have a drainage ditch that runs through the middle of the property that will flood up, and other people own tracts of adjacent properties say north and south of you, can they and their guests put in on their property and cruise on down hunting?
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