Georgia lawmakers strip public trust language from law affirming right to fish

Georgia lawmakers strip public trust language from law affirming right to fish

By Meris Lutz

Source: ajc

3/29/2024

Credit: Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com

The Georgia Legislature voted to strip references to public ownership of natural resources from a law passed last year affirming the public’s right to fish, hunt and pass on the state’s navigable streams and rivers.

Tensions over who has the right to fish certain coveted spots have heightened in recent years. In 2020, a dispute at Yellow Jacket Shoals on the Flint River — famous for its fiesty shoal bass — escalated into gunfire, though no one was harmed.

The new law was rushed through in the waning hours of the 2023 session after the state settled a lawsuit by granting a property owner exclusive fishing rights over a portion of the shoals. The law was welcomed by anglers, paddlers and conservationists, but agribusiness and some private property owners objected to language in the bill referencing the ‘public trust doctrine’ — a common-law principle that natural resources belong to the public and are kept in trust by the state.

Flint River

Bass, Shoal

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