bugman,


A crazy law, did you say? Try "Certifiably Psychotic".

And even if a fly fisher did have a letter on their person authorizing the trespass, how is the officer to know the letter is genuine?

The way this situation should be constitiuted is that the landowner has the option of posting his or her property with signs that read "Trespass by written permission only". THEN if you don't have the letter in your possession the officer can cite you.

But even with your law the way it is now, once any fair-minded judge discovered that you actually did have permission from the landowner to fish that pond, the charge against you should have been dismissed or the fine greatly reduced.

This state law ought to be challenged and overturned, taken to Federal District Court if necessary. What you describe is a state usurpation of private property ownership rights. The state of Texas is not physically taking the property, true, but it might as well be taking it by dictating the method by which owners of private land let otherwise law-abiding citizens enter onto it? I can understand this sort of oppressive arrogance happening in the old communist Soviet Union, but not in Texas.

Something tells me this law got pushed through your legislature by a partnership of wealthy absentee landowners and wealthy sportsmen who typically acquire a stranglehold on hunting and fishing areas by means of high-dollar leases.

And now...back to Zip-cast. Good thing I was going to Cabela's next week anyway; I'm gonna buy some of that stuff!


Joe