John,
As far as witch bill is worse that's just splitting hairs they were all bad. But since HB141 was passed I would say this is the worst. The problem is that this bill gives land owners all the rights while putting a huge financial burden on the public to apply for and provide proof to obtain quiet title. All this just to hopefully maintain the access we had prior to 2008. Whats funny is we cant even start the process of applying for quiet title for one year but landowner can restrict access starting immediately. As it stands right now i don't think any one organization can tell you with out a doubt what is and isn't open to fishing .
Yes the rumor is true, our Governor does have a brother in law who owns land on a very popular stretch of river but it is not the green. He is not the only one many of our reps and senators own land with rivers running through them. My favorite comment made by a Rep. this year was " I think hunting and fishing are stupid that's what welfare is for". So according to the Utah State Legislator and our Governor in these economical hard times rather than let the public access streams that they have had the right to access since before state hood and while paying in to a multimillion dollar a year industry, They would rather we all go on welfare and wrap up all our tax payer dollars in law suites fighting for access to rivers that time and time again has been granted to us by those same courts. Go figure, Utah's finest at there best.
So if your idea of fishing is spending hundreds of dollars a day to catch fish payed for by those who cant fish for them, on river maintained with those same fools tax dollars by all means please come and do so. I hope you get skunked!
Utah the state of sport...If you can afford it.
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