Asking permission

[herbalwizard]

My wife and I recently bought a cabin in NC PA on a class A stream. Most of the stream runs through public land, but there are a dozen or so parcels between us and the state land. I was wondering if it would seem weird if I sent them all letters introducing ourselves and asking permission to fish and or traverse property? We've met a couple folks just walking the road along the creek, but the largest landowners cabin (1600 acres) is no where near the stream. The county has an online parcel map that provides mailing addresses. Any thoughts you guys might have would be great.

It's not a huge deal as there are hundreds of other places to fish, but thought it would be nice to have better access to the creek we're on.

 

[JackM]

Sounds reasonable, but you might also just visit with some homemade cookies or something and talk to them about your request.

 

[Swattie87]

Probably more effective to just introduce yourself in person and inquire in the context of general small talk.

 

[HopBack]

Get to know your neighbors first, worry about access later. They could probably care less about you fishing there, especially if your a great neighbor.

 

[poopdeck]

I always introduce myself to new neighbors and add in if they help with anything to come get me. I have always had great relationships with all of my neighbors no matter where I lived. I think a letter is cold and impersonal especially when you are greeting and asking for something at the same time.

 

[Prospector]

The advice above is really good. I’ve done this many times. If you bide your time you will begin to get some info on your neighbors and if they are totally opposed to people fishing on their property or if they let anyone fish. It will help if you know their mindset and you can approach everyone differently.

As an example I was looking for access to hunt turkey on a farm. The owner didn’t normally let people hunt. I held off asking permission until the moment I felt he couldn’t deny me. One day as I drove past he was fixing his fence so I stopped to help him for about an hour. We worked hand and hand and talked about some things. This was still a long shot but I thought it was the best time to ask. He still said no and I knew that was a lost cause. I’d say 95% of people would have granted that request.

So as you hear about your neighbors tendencies, approach the slam dunks first and just ask. I like to bring apple pies to use as ice breaker. In your case “Hi I’m you new neighbor just wanted to introduce myself.” You need to figure out if you ask right there or if you beat around the bush. “I bought the camp because I love to fish, do you fish? You are welcome to fish through my property”. They likely will extend you the same courtesy.

If you hear they are folks that need to get comfortable with you. Bring the pie, have a friendly conversation, don’t bring up permission unless they do. Let the pie work for you and let them reflect that you are a good person and maybe ask the 2nd or 3rd time you meet them.

If you have a good strategy you will get on most places, but not all. Some people are just never going to let anyone on no matter what you do. One thing on your side is the NCPA culture of sharing the land. There is some posted property usually to limit who deer hunts there and they let all fisherman on. I’ve never been denied fishing on posted land in Potter/Clinton.

 

[PennKev]

Prospector wrote:

As an example I was looking for access to hunt turkey on a farm. The owner didn’t normally let people hunt. I held off asking permission until the moment I felt he couldn’t deny me. One day as I drove past he was fixing his fence so I stopped to help him for about an hour. We worked hand and hand and talked about some things. This was still a long shot but I thought it was the best time to ask. He still said no and I knew that was a lost cause. I’d say 95% of people would have granted that request.

In my experience, getting permission to hunt is much, much harder than getting permission to fish. Even when people give permission to hunt you can often tell that they'd rather you didn't.

On the other hand, I've had people encourage me to come and fish just because they saw me walking down the rod with a fly rod.

 

[Prospector]

PennKev wrote
In my experience, getting permission to hunt is much, much harder than getting permission to fish. Even when people give permission to hunt you can often tell that they'd rather you didn't.

On the other hand, I've had people encourage me to come and fish just because they saw me walking down the rod with a fly rod.

Yes. I agree. I was just demonstrating a worst case secenario where you really need to ook for the right opportunity and it still may not work. This is especialky true around where you live. Hunting permission for outsiders is almost nonexistent.

 

[herbalwizard]

Thanks for all the replies. We'll keep at trying to meet folks first. We bought in June and have walked the road to the end each time we've been up, but have only met 3 people, all from the same camp. We didn't ask any of them about fishing, just shot the breeze. We usually hike with a cooler backpack, beverages share well. No one on the creek lives there year round.

Might still consider a letter to the largest camp. The road dead ends at the far end of their property and theirs is the only land prior to reaching state land. There cabin is somewhere on the top of the mountain (1600 acres) so they aren't really neighbors. If we got their permission it would give us a reason to walk the road with gear on and maybe strike up conversation with our actual neighbors.

We'll take it slow, eventually we'll meet more neighbors. With vacation homes and hunting camps it may take a few year, but lots of places to explore in the meantime!

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Prospector]

This is not always true but if the land isn’t posted that’s promising and if the owners are never there, together that generally adds up to no problem. Many camps these days are used sparingly.

 

[FarmerDave]

All good advice, but I'd like to add a side note.

If said stream crosses close to a dwelling, walk on past. Not cool to fish in someone's back yard unless you have permission even if it isn't posted.

Just my opinion.

 

[Swattie87]

FarmerDave wrote:
All good advice, but I'd like to add a side note.

If said stream crosses close to a dwelling, walk on past. Not cool to fish in someone's back yard unless you have permission even if it isn't posted.

Just my opinion.

A lot of times camp owners build some "artificial" habitat/small rock dams on small streams right where it goes behind or next to their camp. Either to make a fishing hole for them, or in some more primitive cases, a swimming/bathing hole. Either way, there's often a nice fish in these.

I often come across these on small streams on public land with legacy leases on the cabin. My rule is if there's no one at the camp at the time (as is most often the case) I fish through as normal...It's on public land. If there's a vehicle or vehicles there I hop out and walk around. If the camp owners are there and outside I usually stop and talk for a few minutes. They're usually interested in what I've caught, or didn't catch, even if they're not fishermen. In that scenario, I still won't ask to fish the hole in front their cabin, I just move along upstream after we're done talking.

I don't fish on private (unposted) land very often, but I think I'd have a tougher time fishing behind someone's camp, even if they were not there, unless I had their direct permission. Exception maybe being along popular larger, unposted streams where people fish all the time, and the cabin owners surely are aware of anglers...say Kettle or Pine, or Penns for instance. In those situations, if the landowners didn't want anglers there, or wanted to control what anglers were there, they'd post. Still, if the cabin owner was out in their backyard having a BBQ or something, I'd skip that stretch and move on.

 

[FarmerDave]

Swattie, I couldn't have said it better, so I didn't.;-)

 

[Swattie87]

FarmerDave wrote:
Swattie, I couldn't have said it better, so I didn't.;-)

I once came around a bend on Swatara Creek that has a large beach/gravel bar on one side and a few cabins, to find a born again mass baptism or something of the sort. I figured I'd hop out and walk around that one as opposed to having a prize Fallfish run right at one of the participants and do the splashing instead of the officiant.

Yes, they still asked if I was catching anything. (I had caught a nice Pickerel just downstream from there, but I didn't want to tell them about the freshwater Cuda's.) ;-)