River/Creek hunting in Texas?

[trobbi33]

I have a few questions about hunting rivers and creeks. Do you need land owner permission to hunt rivers/creeks? Is it legal to hunt these? What if the creek is a dry creek bed but you can access from a road/highway? I guess my main question is do you need permission to hunt these areas from land owners if you can access from a public road or area?

[Indianasmith]

Up here in NE Texas, if you can park on a major highway or FM and hop into the creek without crossing a fence, no one really says anything about it. From what I have heard, in Central Texas the landowners are a lot more picky. It depends on the width of the stream too. As I understand it, creeks more than 30 feet wide, that carry running water for at least 3 -4 months out of the year, are considered "public waterways." Probably your best bet is to get permission whenever you can.

[joshuaream]

My general view is that if one owner owns both sides, you should get permission because you are walking into his property. But if it's a major river that people fish, it's open to hunting.

If you are hunting in the Eagle Pass area, I'd worry more about the other trespassers than the landowner... (Don't wrap your lunch in shrink wrap and duct tape, the border patrol doesn't think it's as funny as you'd think.)

[trobbi33]

You are right we don't think it is funny

[Scotto]

Along the river here, they do offer canoe trips and such from a couple businesses, but that's going thru other people's properties while sitting in a canoe. I imagine if you saw a point in the water you could pick it up without anyone minding much, but if you stopped and hunted a riverbank, best to get permission from whomever owns that bank. If the creek was dry and you can get to it from the highway, I wouldn't do it without permission. I think looking under the bridge over the road may be OK, but someone is going to own it from there.