ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602130007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The Jackson River below Gathright Dam frequently is praised as one of the finest trout streams in the Eastern United States, but it may be gaining even more of a reputation as a river of controversy.
Last week, officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries were saying they would have to take a fresh look at how the 19-mile stretch of river from the dam to Covington is stocked and managed as a public trout fishery.
``We haven't made a definite decision,'' said Gary Martel, chief of the department's fish division. ``We are going to have to evaluate our management plans.''
This came following a four-year court fight that recently upheld the claims of landowners that they own the fishing rights on a three-mile stretch of the river, and they can decide who gets to fish it. Landowners along other sections of the river are expected to make the same claim.
The controversy, which frequently has pit friend against friend, began as a gift.
On June 1, 1750, King George II gave William Jackson 270 acres along the river. With it came the privileges of fishing, hunting, hawking and fowling.
Nineteen years later, George III bestowed 93 areas to Richard Morris.
The current landowners have argued the same rights conferred by the English kings apply to them, no matter how many times the property has been sold and subdivided.
The battle over who can fish and who can't erupted shortly after Gathright Dam went into place upstream, forming Moomaw Lake. The U.S. Corps of Engineers project was built to provide the kind of cold, oxygen-rich releases that are perfect for trout. The Corps acquired a number of public-access points downstream, and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries stocked trout by the thousands using money from fishing licenses.
Anglers felt they were in, but landowners took their claims of ownership to court. In the latest round of legal battles, the landowners' ties to the 18th century English crown were upheld, at least on the stretch of river starting about a half-mile below the dam to the Virginia 687 Bridge at Natural Well.
Some landowners are saying this doesn't necessarily mean anglers won't be able to fish the Jackson. It is just that, ultimately, they will have to pay to do so.
Efforts by fishermen to get the Virginia Supreme Court to consider their side have failed. That doesn't mean the issue is dead and anglers are locked out forever, said James Brewer, who operates a tackle shop in Charlottesville and heads the Jackson River Defence Fund.
``It will be taken to federal court,'' he said. ``Once we get it out of the local courts, it will have a chance.''
While the Jackson is classified as navigable, anglers risk incurring civil judgment if they fish through the property of an adversary landowner, even if they do so from a canoe.
``The areas that are public still are public,'' Martel said.
The trick for anglers is to determine what is public and what isn't. There is a several-hundred-yard stretch immediately below the dam that is federal property, and there are five additional access points downstream.
A high percentage of the public fishing takes place at the dam, where fly casters often stand shoulder to shoulder. The crowd gathers there not just because the frigid water is thick with trout, but also because of the uncertainty of where public land ends and private land begins downstream.
Some fishermen say the battle lines aren't just drawn on the Jackson. Other rivers, Including the James, Shenandoah and Dan, are a patchwork of Colonial-era grants, a reality that could muddy the water for fishermen.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB