And doing what I said on a regional basis would give everybody a piece of the better access pie. I’ve always viewed many fisheries issues from a statewide perspective and I think it can be said that some of our best and potentially most popular waters or segments thereof are not recognized as being best or highly popular or as popular as they could be because access is bad. It’s highly likely that these occur all over the state. I’m not just talking about trout streams, although they would be included and I’m certainly not focusing on central Pa alone, where there is already so much public land.
If you want to talk about popularity potential for just one example, look at all of the good lakes in Pa that are surrounded by private property, sometimes a single owner, sometimes multiple owners. Heck, I can even think of a very good wild trout stream barely in SC Pa that has lost a lot of access over the years and a good one in Bucks Co where I’d be glad to see some form of low profile public access like an easement. And what about warmwater/coolwater navigable waters? All that’s needed is a sliver of riparian land leading from a public road or public parking spot to access a lot of wading potential. Do you think that there are not stretches along the Susquehanna or its branches, for example, that are tough to get to for a wading angler or shore-bound angler? Likewise, I’ll bet such stretches exist along some western Pa rivers as well. Even where there is dredging and substantial commercial boat traffic close to shore making wading impossible or perhaps not very smart, access for shore fishing can be at a premium.
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