I went to the Samish River Friday to see if the rain had brought the salmon in.
The east bank is permit only $20 a day or $100.00 a season. West bank isn’t pay as you go ---yet.

I talked to a person that was pro-pay on the east bank and he said he tried to talk the lease owner into charging $500.00 a season. His assessment was the large crowd which deposited garbage, hypodermic needles, and human waste everywhere was the main concern.
As we talked another fisherman walked up and hollered profanities when finding out about pay to fish on the east bank.
As I was heading back to the truck I spoke with an anti pay for access fisherman.
He said that the state owns the property to the high tide level and the land lease owner is saying that they own to the middle of the river.

As we spoke the son of the pro pay walked over to the west bank and began to drive a no trespassing sign into the ground next to the river. The anti pay next to me hollered “you better take that sign down or you’re going to get sued. You have no right to put that sign there or anywhere else next to the river on either side”. The kid took the sign back to the other side.

He ended the conversation saying that the sheriff office has already told him that they are staying out of it for now and WDFW is looking into it.

Pretty close to prime time for salmon soon could seriously escalate hollering into who knows where it will end.

WARNING: This is unverified info from both of these people I spoke to.

The rain really didn’t seem to bring many fish in.

Well he can own to the middle of the river all he wants, but according the PTD, it is protected below the high water mark for pulic use, public or private owned.( Someone on other forum said he was going to put it to the test, have to watch and see)

Now access to the high water mark is the other issue, and the land lease owner can charge for that. But the west side is own by the WDFW for about 3 corners up.

So far this has been funny to watch play out.

I am sure the Sheriff has better things to do, then waste time and money dealing with this.

First, I am NOT an attorney. Second, I have never fished this area.

Rivers are pretty straight forward as far as high water mark goes (with maybe a couple of land grant exceptions I have read rumors about; see the property description on file with the County).

Salt water is also pretty straight forward; look at the property description on file with the County to determine whether private property ownership is to mean high tide, mean low tide or something else.

That research may define who owns what but no matter where the public ownership may be there is no right to trespass on private property to access public property (that I know of - I am NOT an attorney) nor to move up and down the waterway nor to camp, clean fish or to do various human functions. Which are probably the reasons this and other such closures are occurring. Very unfortunate but understandable from the property owners' perspective given the description of trash, etc.

Actually, the fact that the landowner has imposed a trespass fee provides some protection for his property while still allowing access to the river. The alternative could have been a complete closure.

What is unfortunate is that our various public accesses to lakes, rivers and salt water have been reduced and/or left in disrepair. Certainly we currently face difficult fiscal realities but many of these sites were the victims of apathy beginning years ago. But that is another story......

I heard about this. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I personally think those people are just trying to make a buck.

They are sick of the $hit show but my grandpa participated in that $hit show as well as many other elders. It is long time running thing and the land owners are just now starting to do this?

I feel it is what it is. Don't mess with it.

Has the garbage really gotten that much worse in recent years? I don't go there too much and haven't notice an increase. I do see tons of garbage just like every other time I have been there and just like every other meat fishery.

Jason B

So your grandpa and many other elders participated in the "[censored] Show" and that somehow makes it right in today's world?

Charging for access will presumably cut down on the number of people, allow the landowner to screen folks for access and cut them off if they fail to follow the rules, and may provide a few bucks to cover any expenses related to activities on his property.

And even if they are "just" trying to make a buck, so what? If you feel so offended I suggest you buy some river front property and then you can do with it as you see fit (within the law).

I think that your description of it being a "[censored] Show" pretty well explains the situation and justifies the landowner's actions.

Hello All

The people overseeing this on the private land side have sent out a map showing what area is covered by them and what area is owned by the State.
I presume they have also done their homework about what they can & can't do.

That being said, a lot of you are missing the BIG PICTURE. For years I have read on here people complaining about land being closed all over the State, about garbage etc everywhere. In a 3 mile stretch on the Snohomish I can show you a public area always littered with trash and an area I used to be able to fish that has been closed for years because of people not giving a sh.. about their property.

Last year a large portion upstream from the property in question was closed, posted etc by other farmers. Access off Sunset was one of them. That just moved more people down river. This not only created issues on the river but also issues have been on-going for years with parking.

There is no way it was going to continue the way it was. So they had 2 options, CLOSE IT to all or limit the # of people and charge $$.

I paid my $$ just like people pay to fish Crab Bar on the Snohomish, used to pay for access to Richwine, to launch boats at any number of locations or to hunt some locations.

Point is, if you don't want to pay, DON'T. There is pleny of access on the State side. There is plenty of parking along the road (don't park over the white line, they have issued tickets before).

I hope they make some $$ off this. With the amount of BULL they've had to put up with over the years they should.

Ok this is what I have been told by my sister whom owns property up to the Samish. Back in the old days they diverted the river into its current dike system. They cut the path of the samish through property owners fields. Hence argument that they own the dike and own to the middle of the river. Anyways..just sharing what I have been told and the basic reasoning as to why the property owners feel they can control the access. I personally dont like fishing there and think the fish taste like [censored]. gl a

Amazing how many folks are willing to listen to rumors and idle speculation about who owns what but won't talk the time to check the facts. Today it is pretty easy to check the ownership of land in question through the County Assessor's office. Most of counties (including Skagit) have that information online.

If you choose to check the facts regarding the ownship of the land in question I think you will find the owners are on sound footing. For example the owner of the parcel on the east side of the Samish above the bridge own both the uplands and the tidelands.

While I hate to see the average angler to loss access in this case it is hard to fault those that own the land along the Samish for being disgusted with the behavior of some of those using their property and wanting relief dealing with that mess.

Tight lines
Curt

Talk about taking all the fun out of fishing. Combat fishing in a stinky ditch of a "river" where you have to PAY to play in the sloppy mud and get shoulder to shoulder with some "interesting" people....

That ain't fishin', and I ain't goin. Count me out. LOL

Kinda. Kinda like a lot of things we do out of tradition. I don't even like that fishery personally but I think it should be there.



Just what we need........A landowner screening people for access. Have you ever met the landowner that screens for access up on the Cascade? That guy likes to walk around with his gun. Usually folks who do this kind of thing are crazy. Hopefully these people aren't.



First of all, I am not offended by this, just saddened. Second of all, there are a lot of wealthy fishermen that would love to do this sort of thing to all of our fisheries. Third, doing everything one can within the law does not always constitute right.



I will tell you what would be justified to me. Putting up a fence and telling people "No Trespassing" like most land owners do. Having a complex pay to play system is just overly complicated BS. I would be curious if this land owner sees the plan as a compromise with the anglers or if they see it as a way to make money or worse as a hobby.

If it really bothers them they should just shut it down. All this is going to do is create complications and confusion and piss people off.

I also wanted to make a post regarding the name of this thread, "Samish River WAR ?? Escalating".

I am not saying the land owners aren't in the right. But one has to realize that this is going to be a war. Who exactly started this war?

Jason B:

Who started this war? We as land users/guests started the war years ago all over the State not just the Samish. The people who fish, picnic, party etc have caused this war.
The 2 active Service Men I vistied with last fall, nice guys. When I turned around after they left, there were their empty bait containers etc.. My guess they didn't know any better
The couple I saw picnicing with their kids on the Snohomish (years ago), got up and left their garbage on the gravel bar (pissed off land owner bad). Access closed for years now.
The person who took a crap in a parking lot on the Samish last fall when there was a Honey Buckett 50 yards away.
The people who park stupid, blocking access for farm equipment.
That's who!!!

Again if people don't want to pay, they don't have to. It is better then Posting it to all. Most of the people I know that have paid are not rich.
A lot of you own sleds etc. How much does it cost you to make 5 trips in a season when you look at cost of boat, gas, maintenance, gear etc. My guess $100 is nothing.

One other thing. it is not a WAR.

If you don't want to pay, DON'T . The State side is free with plenty of room.

People having been dumping their $hit all over this state well over 100 years. It isn't right but it isn't new either. What changed in the last 12 months to suddenly make these landowners so fed up that they are going to charge people to fish there?

Also did it occur to anyone that maybe that guy reallllllllly had to drop some bombs and the honeybucket was in use? $hit happens as they say.


As far as your talk of us fishermen with sleds and all that expensive crap. I don't have much to say. Most it does not apply to me. I keep things simple and cheap. Even if I could afford that stuff, I still wouldn't be stoked to spend 100$ to fish one little part of the state, especially that mud hole.

100$ is something to everyody. Even the richest people among us.

You know Jason. You're kind of funny.

You ask what has changed. That should be an easy one for you.

The Samish is only an example of the pressure we all face if we want to fish.

In general our culture has changed to where we are a Greener society. That means that land owners who may have tolerated garbage before most likely now recycles. Many are struggling to make ends meat.

Over time more & more private access has been cut, bringing more & more people to the areas still open. With those people (some of different cultures) come more problems and in some cases more costs for the land owner.

So from a land owners side, many whom over the years have been ever so gracious to allow access, they have to be saying "why am I doing this".

They owe us nothing. We owe them our gratitude. Problem is there are people who don't care or understand. They think taking a sh.. in the middle of a parking area (on private property), leaving their pile of sh.. & toilet paper is ok. They aren't smart enough to think "maybe I should use the honey buckett or at least go on the side, in the tall grass". Instead they leave it for someone else to pick it up.

So what it comes down to in many cases is the land owner asking themselves. "What do I do"? In the case of the Samish, they chose to keep access on a limited pay basis. By the farm, past the Prison in Monroe, they just put up a big fence with a lot of NO TRESPASSING signs.

So the answer to your question is TIME & PEOPLE!!! That is what changed.

I like how everyone is under the impression that this action was taken due to poor land use by the public. Its GREED plain and simple. Last year the upper stuff closed leaving only this stretch to fish, more people hit the meat hole than ever before, and the landowner saw dollar signs and a monopoly type situation owning much of the access to what remains of the fishery.

I am sorry, trash ain't the reason its come to this, its f'in greed and everyone should know it. 200 tickets at a hundred each is 20 grand.

*bling bling*

Mpizzile its real simple if you don't like paying you could have bought the land and let everyone dump [censored] on your property, then pay to clean it all up when the season is over..

First of all, there is bitching going both ways like bitching usually does so lets not go there.

Second, hell no I wouldn't let someone hang out in my front yard but my front yard isn't the meat hole on the Samish River. Some land owners need to accept that they live in special places. Most of the year that place is probably nice and quiet. Probably a sweet place to live. I think those land owners are lucky as hell to live where they live.

What I am saying is that bitching about the situation down there is like bitching about flooding. It is just going to happen anyway.

Charging people is just a way to make a buck. Don't justify it with some story about garbage and a dump by the side of the road.

mpizzle and others
Can I come do this on your property? Crap in your yard, leave a big pile of stinky rotting fish remains (heads, carcass etc) in your driveway, fill your doorway with used diapers, completely block your driveway, park in your driveway so you have to maneuver to get into your driveway. Daily walk through your yard leaving beer cans, stinky bait containers etc. And oh yes, leave your front door open so any pets you have can run loose in yoru neighborhood. I doubt it. Why should they.

The land owners on the Samish have warned us in various ways and about various things for years. Some in person, some by sign and some by the Holiday Market newsletter that goes out. I don't believe it is greed. I for one hope they make some $$ off it and keep it open.

Abu-Loomis
Well said!! I doubt it as well.