Can someone please offer clarification regarding where it is legal to wade in WA rivers when adjacent to private property. I've heard the high-water mark but never actually read the laws (and is the high water mark defined as where the river floods...). There are several small rivers that I have accessed from public sites that eventually end up in front of private property (fortunately people have typically been friendly although I have always wondered what legal rights they could claim), not to mention that the posting regarding the "Hoh incident" has made me reconsider my safety. Thanks.

My river property is deeded to the middle of the river. Since the river is navigable, anyone can float over the property legally.
I could prohibit bank and wading access, but since I like the freedom to wander up and down riverbanks myself, I've never considered doing it. Many people think that levees or revetments are publically owned and open for public access. This is often not the case. Maintenance crews may have the right of access, others use the easement at the discretion of the private property owner. Good luck with both access and your fishing.

I looked into this a little more myself and found the following useful information:

What if the current property owner's deed reads to the middle of a river, or seems to surround and include the river?

If the physical characteristics of the river are such that it meets the federal test of title navigability, it is public land up to the ordinary high water line. Since a deed can only convey interests actually owned by the seller, and since the bed and banks of all navigable rivers passed to the states at the time of statehood, it is likely that the state is the true owner. The state's ownership is a "prior existing right" and is frequently mentioned as such on deeds. Somewhere along the chain of property transactions, a deed may have been changed to include the riverbed. Unfortunately, if this happened it was likely done incorrectly. In some states the property owner next to a river may have certain rights, such as the right to construct a small dock that extends onto the public land at the edge of the river. Note that a determination that a river is navigable for title purposes is not a "taking" of private property under the U.S. Constitution-the river and the land along it were public land all along. A "taking" can only occur if the land in question was clearly privately owned in the first place.

http://www.adventuresports.com/river/nors/states/wa-law.htm

This may seem like a stupid question, but I never had to worry about this issue until moving to Puget Sound a couple years ago. What is the definition of navigable? I've seen local water that could barely float a canoe and was considered "navigable". I know of water in Eastern Washington that is stocked by the State and could be worked with a small drift boat, but seems to be off-limits even to float tubes. In fact, the land owners have strung barbed wire and razor wire all around public bridges, road right-of-ways, even across the river, to keep fishermen out. Some landowners string barbed wire 4 to 6 inches above the surface to snag lures. The worst owners put it just below the water... to snag unsuspecting waders or bare legs.

Access is an increasing problem. The parcel's are being chopped up smaller and smaller with that many new land owner's. Where before one man would own 60 acre's, and not mind fisher's/hunter's. Now twelve people would have the control. I'm not educated in this area, but in a lot of case's easement (I've had access through here for so long you can't stop me now) has to be an issue. This is how I think the stream bank's should be. Free movement up and down, unless a natural barrier exist's. However, the real problem (as it's been since I've been a kid) is PIG'S wrecking everything by littering and dumping car's, appliances, couch's ect. A few year's ago I was fishing my favorite Stilly trib. for Sea-Run Cutt's. When I met the landowner who had the property on both side's of the creek. He asked me about myself and explained that he actually owned the streambed. I was taken aback the next year when I found No Tresspass sign's strung all the way across the streambank. Respecting the sign's I did'nt fish my best hole. I called him up that night, and found out that he was having a dispute with a neihboring landowner. I was glad I was able to teach him how to kick the trout with my jig/bobber technique. Otherwise I probally would'nt have felt comfortable calling him. I guess the moral of this story is to respect the owner and his property, and be nice to the people you meet fishing. Your future fishing my just be in their hand's. Rock On?

The laws on this, as I understand it, vary from state to state. Montana for example landowners do own the stream itself in many places and can restrict it (hence private fishing areas on spring creeks and rivers). Washington law is different. Landowners DO NOT own the streambed, nor can they restrict you from being in the stream (they can block access across dry land). It is also illegal for them to string wire across the river or stream. As mentioned before, it does have to be a "navigable" river/stream, however, that definition is pretty broad and includes most all streams that don't dry up.
Deciding if a fight or argument is worth the hassle is the big decision. Most law enforcement don't want to be bothered with it.