After being run off for "trespassing" last week, when I was in the streambed of a navigable river and had accessed the river legally, I decided I needed to be even more informed of my legal rights to navigable streams (and what defines a navigable stream).

This law review by Richard Frank is the best synopsis of US water law as it relates to navigability and public use that I could find.

If you regularly fish public waters that flow through private lands, you definitely will want to read this law review (at least the first half - the latter half deals specifically with California law). As for me, I'll be putting a copy of it in a Ziploc baggie (along with a copy of a particular Arkansas court case) and carrying it in my fishing pack at all times.

http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/iss...6No3_Frank.pdf