Hunting the Kansas river question

[Extreme Fowl]

A couple months back i was hunting the River with 3 other of my buddies we set up and two other local guys showed up down streem so i went and introduced myself and let them know we were up river and if they would like to hunt with us then i went back to our spot and had some exilent hunting the nite after i got a call from the guy and he said i couldnt hunt the river and that the land owner he crosses to get to the river said he ouned up to the middle of the river and that if i ever wanted to hunt down there again that i half to call him or if i even wanted to hunt the river that i would half to have a boat because we cant touch the river bottom just the water.

what should i do??

[SLduckhunter]

I own land on the KS river and all you have to do is get access to the river somehow and if you can put a boat in the water than you can hunt from any sandbars or from a boat anywhere that you want. But you can't just show up and walk across the levy and hunt from the bank..you have to have landowner permission.

We have this problem a lot and a lot of the local guys will get pretty pissy about it.

[Jeremy DeVries]

The laws about river access are different in every state. In Montana for example the water, the river bed, and the banks, sandbars are islands are all considered public property within what is described as the typical "high water mark". That is usually accepted to be the point where water is likey NOT or be even in the largest flows of the spring.

Other states (ie: states that suck) like Wyoming have private access laws. That is, the land owner can own to the middle of the river and also owns the bottom of that river as well. It makes hunting on the river very difficult but not impossible. I have always thought it was weird people can claim to own melting snow. I just don't get that, ........but then again, I've always had great access to the best rivers in the country for free.

I don't know what the laws are in Kansas, but your local Fish and Guts office should be able to let you know easily.

Good Luck.