Can you legally fish marinas?

[camelot]

We have had several incidents this year fishing in marinas or the mouths of marinas. Trailer owners etc have said that there is no fishing in the channels, around docks and such. Can the trailer parks and marinas deny fishing in their areas? We have always been very curious on the legality of this issue.
Thanks

 

[Irish1983]

If it's by boat you should be fine navigatable waters right

 

[Bandwagon]

Many of the marinas in the bay at Long Point are private, the channels are man made and they can ask you to leave. I fish many of them on weekdays without an issue but weekend boat traffic will get you unwanted attention. No one wants a 1 once tungsten weight hitting the side of there boat.

 

[Doral Tara]

You are probably standing on private property to cast your line in the water....if you are and they say "no fishing" then you are trespassing..

 

[rushcreek]

It's up to the land owners, myself I let people, who respectively ask,

 

[The sea is my mother]

I had a cottage down in Rondeau bay a while back personally I had no problem with the boaters using the canal to fish however ,when some guys sets up shop on your back lot that's not cool ! People should always be respectful and ask!,most of those canals are private because we pay an association fee ,as well as paying a fee to dredge the canals !!Some cottagers go off the deep end ,no need to flip out right.

 

[camer]

With permission , yes.

 

[bigtalk]

Last time I read the federal definition of "navigable water", it specifically included man-made channels. I know that the current federal government changed a bunch of definitions relating to public lands and the Fisheries Act, but last time I read the definition, yes, man-made channels were included in the public lands of navigable waters. (If you've ever dug a boat-well, you know that you basically have to get permission to create Crown land.) The short answer is, unless you're standing on the marina's land, you're probably legally ok.

 

[jrr]

Legally you are likely fine. But practically speaking.... the bay is huge. There are so many other places where are probably way more fish. Getting in the way of boats and casting hooks accidentally on to boats is just a bad idea. People generally don't like boats that don't live there drifting around their marinas because a) you could be checking out for 'free stuff' b) you don't 'live' there so you could just bump into a boat and take off. The security of the marina depends a lot on the boaters letting you know they see you... so fish away but expect to be watched the whole time.

Btw, some jackass ran into my boat at Turkey Point -- he was just touring people around. Someone saw him run his boat along my prop but it was never reported by the boat owner. His boat was damaged but thankfully my stainless prop was ok.