This is excerpted from an essay written for the Riverkeeper’s Guide to the Chattahoochee by attorney Craig Pendergrast

The question of public rights on Georgia streams is fraught with confusing, conflicting and complicated legal issues. Many different standards and arguments apply. River rights proponents see it this way: the adjacent landowner owns the riverbank and the river bed, but a public easement or “navigational servitude” exists to travel on the water by boat, whether or not some form of commerce is involved. The landowner can use the stream and its bed for any purpose desired, so long as that use is not inconsistent with the public’s right of travel. Those uses can include agricultural or industrial uses and may even include the right to fence or dam the stream if necessary. But if fencing or damming is necessary, the landowner should provide an alternate route for boaters.

Some, but blessedly few, landowners feel that their ownership of the bed and banks of a boatable stream also constitutes the right to prohibit boaters from paddling the stream altogether. They look to an 1863 Georgia statute which they claim gives them absolute ownership without any public boating easement, unless the stream can support “boats loaded with freight in the ordinary course of trade.” To invoke such claim, these landowners typically post no boating signs or the like.

Most of the relevant legal history derives from Roman and British ancient law and from state and federal law dating back to the 19th century. Historically and in modern times, most state and federal courts throughout the country have held that a stream’s capability of travel by canoes is sufficient to establish public or commercial boating rights on that stream. Nevertheless, some courts have taken a narrower view and insisted that only major rivers capable of supporting deep-draft watercraft are “navigable” so as to result in public boating rights.

The right to fish is a different issue altogether. Even though it is generally considered a public right to boat on the Chattahoochee and its tributaries, that does not mean that there is a general public right to fish wherever one chooses, even from a boat. The right of fishery belongs to the owner of the bed and banks, even though the fish themselves are considered to be owned by the state, not the landowner. Does that mean that you can’t fish from a boat, except on stretches owned by the government? Probably not. The main thing to watch out for are posted signs saying no fishing. If you see those signs, don’t fish. If the landowner asks you not to fish, don’t fish. Otherwise, it would appear that the landowner has not chosen to exercise his or her rights to keep you from fishing, and you are probably okay fishing.

Even with public boating rights, as more and more people paddle, and more and more homes are built on Georgia’s streams, the potential for annoyance and conflict mounts. So, be careful and be nice. Do not assume that there is an automatic right to hike, portage, scout, take pictures or camp on riverbank land. Take only pictures: leave only paddle strokes.