To add a little color commentary to Eric's advice - which is all great advice to just avoid a confrontation completely, and I'd recommend following it. The Land Grant only applies to the riverbed - assuming the courts would ever make a decision affirming the validity of the Land Grant over general VA statutes. You cannot walk or anchor on it (since you'd be using the riverbed), but you CAN float over it. As the fish are not part of the river bed, you are technically allowed to fish (from a canoe, raft, etc.) as long as you don't anchor or get out. Of course, you're risking a confrontation, so it is up to you whether it is worth the risk. If you really wanted to irk them, you could anchor outside their property line, and float into their property with a real long line... but again, why risk the confrontation.
Also, if anyone fires warning shots and threatens to kill you for floating the water, call the cops.
On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 4:19 PM, Eric Y. <theericyoung@gmail.com> wrote:
Danny: I am sure that is hyperbole, but if the landowner has a legitimate claim (many believe they do but cannot prove it), you could be in a lot of trouble. As recently as March of this year, a fly angler racked up over $100,000 in legal fees trying (unsuccessfully) to fight a number of civil trespassing lawsuits for being in land grant water. Some landowners can get hostile. Back in high school in my whitewater-running days, we ran Bottom Creek (another infamous King's Land Grant issue that American Whitewater has battled for probably 20 years) during a flood and had a a guy firing warning shots into the air and threatening to kill us if we ever ran it again (of course, we did, but never saw him again).Gene: Hidden Valley is a good spot. People hate on it because it isn't easy, walk-up fishing like the tailwater (which can be like shooting fish in a barrel many days), but without spot burning some other places, that's one of your best bets to find the big girls in the fall. It takes more persistence and is still fairly popular because of the bigger fish and the better challenge. Still not as popular as the tailwater, but in fishing the tailwater on at least 100 different occasions, I've seen at most 6-8 other anglers on the section and 90% of the time you'll have the whole place to yourself.Brendan: Yes, do not drag an anchor, do not cast a line. You can probably float through those sections just fine as long as you stay in your boat, don't anchor, and don't fish, but I wouldn't test it but I am a wimp and definitely not a rule-breaker any more (and barely a rule-bender at that). People making any sort of claim with any inclination to enforce it will post LOTS and LOTS of signs on the bank - there's no doubt when you enter one of these sections.
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