Fishing private water is for girlz. 

Senyo you are an amazing fisherman, a gentleman and a true outdoorsman...said no one, ever!  

I'm curious: to those who attended the PSA meeting with Commissioner Mascharka, what did he say about it, other than boilerplate, "made for press-release" type rhetoric?
 
 
 

Senyo and people like him will be the death of the steelhead program. They portray a caring for the resource yet only use it for personal gains and profit. Disgusting!! 

you wont know

D-nymph

ladyoflakeerie
Really.......this is very disturbing to me on so many levels....I'm sure some of you on this very forum are guides...and I am sure that before you take your "clients" out for a day on the creeks you know exactly which part of the creek has been "leased" if you will, from the PFBC through their public access fishing program.....ok....with that said, have you ever considered that the clients that you are guiding, which pay you for your service (by the way some may interpret this as profiting from the fish placed in our streams that are paid for by the licenses that WE purchase and the trout salmon/lake erie permit)...that if you decide to take this client to privately owned land, have you ever once considered contacting the owner of the land to ask for permission to fish there...with your client who is paying you for your time and know how???? Maybe you instead sent the landowner a thank you note or a fruit basket...well did you???? What you are all failing to recognize with your grandiose ideas of the wrongs that have been bestowed upon you is this....."its a free country, where citizens are able to own and manage their land any way they see fit"...even if it rubs you the wrong way....and no they shouldn't have to move somewhere else to live just because they are tired of people profiting from the use of their land with no consideration to them at all?? Most of us in the area that you are referring to on Elk Creek were born and raised there...we have raised our own kids there....we have taught them to appreciate the true beauty of the land and water and to never take it for granted....there are many reasons why one would love to live and enjoy this property.....so if the land owner wants to post this property for any reason....even if the landowner wants to have a little extra money to off set the cost of the property taxes so what.......Make it right people....quit crucifying the owner...

Only one person here crucified a landowner, and was told they were being ridiculous by several.
 
Everyone also is free to patronize whichever fishing tackle shops they see fit.  And if one is doing something they don't like, they are free to spend their money elsewhere.

 
So this tackle shop or any shop for that matter was wrong to attempt to satisfy a land owner who has "amazing fishing holes" and fishermen by attempting a lease agreement? Whether it was from the landowner himself or a broker????
 
I'm sorry I'm confused? Id think that everyone would be happy to know they could go into a shop and pay a reasonable fee to fish in the best holes around... It would be like Elk hunting out west! You pay a guide to get you to the best places... They pay land owners for their land!

Yes, that tackle shop or any shop is wrong to do so, in my opinion.  And I will not patronize a business that does so.
 
No, not everyone is happy to pay to fish somewhere, quite the opposite.  In fact, my days of fishing Erie county, spending my money in the county, over night, food, lodging, etc, is rapidly coming to a close, as a result of leasing of lands.

lost sage rod sectio
Cry baby cry put your finger in your eye tell your mother it wasn't I Wrap this up in the courts for years so we will all be dead when its resolved you want it fixed get the politicians involved they are doing a very fine job with the government now. Oh and by the way do you think any body cares!!!!!

Ever hear of a punctuation mark? dumazz

[ Edited quote=Youghman]
 
I don't know what the answer is, hell, I already forgot the question.
 

As my friend, a Destin FLA charter boat Captain says
"Sea-nile Virus" [that's the way he wrote it, no misspelling].

Erie Steelhead Fishing on the famous Elk Creek.................open public waters , no guide needed. Bring your friends always room for one more ! Lots of action and you will only need to wear one boot just slip the other into your partner's !

I had my prime Steelheading times the past 2 years. Honestly, this year I'm ready to be done with the whole scene. I think it's time to take some trips to the Pacific for real Steelhead. It's like a carnival up there in Erie, and the people are too much. Crowding, trashing, profiteering, politics, economy, land easements... It's all too much. The fun of the fishing is being sucked right out of it.

In a lot of cases, too, the fishermen are just snagging fish to eat anyway. For every conservation and ethics based individual, there are prolly 10 slobs up there. Locals and out of towners. Whether you're a fisherman who trashed someone's land or a land owner who trashed someone's fishery. Either way, it's not ok, and you're gonna catch hell for it from someone. I don't like the idea of people profiting from a public resource either, but it is their land. They can post it if they want to. MMMERICA!!! It's absurd that the PFBC, fishermen, and land owners can't get along and work something out.

That said, I can't help but think of one important detail. If you pay for the Lake Erie Stamp, you can still catch Steelhead from the lake. That just about defeats any argument on posting stream-side land. On the same tone, if you close your land to profit from a public resource instead of closing for privacy, that defeats your argument for justification. 

White Death
The reason the land was posted is based on a couple of instances experienced by the landowner. First, he had a couple of unpleasant encounters with steelhead fishermen on his own property. This set the stage for combustion to eventually occur. What started the fire and ultimate posting of the property was the landowner was apparently recently cited for a trespassing violation by parking his car, along with a couple of friends, on the adjacent property which is posted. According to my reliable first hand source the owner had a hand shake agreement with the nursery owner to access his land through their property.  From what I gather the land in question is landlocked or quasi inaccessible.  All landowners have a right to access their property whether landlocked or not.  The party responsible for the citation was the Pennsylvania Game Commission, not Fish and Boat, and it apparently went to court. The fines ended up standing and were around $180 for each person. This broke the back of the property owner and triggered the posting, so the story goes.  If this is correct it is actually shameful. Not that anyone is above the law but it seems common sense and law enforcement discretion was not applied. This is what I was told anyway.

rmcmillen09
there are over a dozen property's bordering said stretch of water according to a map I was shown today. maybe all is not lost folks.

aside from kjh's great nursery waters idea. This is the only pertinent info I found in all these pages of complaining. I figured I'd put these back at the bottom to save yinz from reading 15 pages of baloney... everyone respects landowners rights to post private property. The fish however, are not their private property. End thread...