Water Access Question

[ian_padron]

Can one of you WA natives explain the laws regarding hunting rivers in this state?

I'm originally from Wisconsin and back there if your feet were wet, you could hunt it, didn't matter if the bank was public or private. By wet, the DNR meant the natural high water mark, which allowed some serious leeway during dry/flood seasons alike. If a farmer's field flooded for example, and a boat could float in from a navigable waterway, you could hunt it. Pretty slick deal in my opinion.

What I'm wondering is if I can publicly launch a watercraft, am I then free to hunt any navigable waterway (anywhere I can float a boat)? Have heard a few different interpretations out here haha, thanks in advance!

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[Special T]

Thats supposed to be it works here however I dont think setting up in a farmers feild from a boat will win you too many friends... the big trick is not tresspassing to acess the navigable waters. There is different threshhold for tresspass and tresspass while hunting and differeing penalties.

[Special T]

Pretty sure ist the normal high water mark but not flood stage. 2c

[follow maggie]

Generally, it's the average high water mark like specialT said. Flooded fields don't count. If the bird lands on private property & you retrieve it without permission, it's trespassing. The landowner isn't required to give you permission to enter to retrieve downed game. I don't hunt rivers through private propery for those reasons. There are exceptions, but that's the general gist.

[ian_padron]

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it!

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