I don’t know if this has been brought up befoe, but where are the handicap fishing holes in your part of the world? I remember a very nice ramp for wheel chairs on the big bend of the Clackamas River above the first dam in Oregon. Also the first parking lot on the Metolius in Oregon alows one to wheel right up to the bend in the river that works fine from a chair. The Old Mill on the River Raisen here in Michigan has a nice blacktop path right to the rivers edge to fish from. Where are the ones you know about?
I learn more about the world while talking to myself when fishing alone
The only one I’ve seen around here is on the St. Vrain at Button Rock. There are a few other places I’ve seen that could be fished from a wheelchair, but they aren’t officially designated.
There is at least one ramp on the Arkansa river (Colorado, between Salida and Beuna Vista)
On Utah’s Green River there are several accessable spots at Little Hole and near the boat ramp at the top of the A section. You could also get a guide for the day and fish the whole river from a drift boat.
There are more handicapped areas than
there once were, but they are still pretty
limited I believe. Here in my section of
South Carolina, bank fishing is a rare
commodity. Most of our waters are best
accessed by boat. In that regard, many of
our boat landings ARE handicapped accessable. As part of my paddle trails
program with our county, I’m involved in
getting a couple of new ramps built. They
are handicapped accesable as well. We
recently converted an existing ramp to
handicapped accessable with volunteer crews
and a county grant. It got a lot of local
publicity and I’ve received several letters
of thanks from challenged outdoors people.
Part of my job with the county included a
paddle trails web site. I included a lot of
pictures in the website and added
descriptions of the pictures for the
visually handicapped using voice technologies so that the pictures could be
“seen” by all. While there is still plenty
of room for improvement, I am encouraged by
the progress I’ve seen. In particular,
where federal funding is involved, every
attempt is made to ensure safe access for
all. Warm regards, Jim
Dry Run Creek below the Norfork Dam in Arkansas. As a matter of fact a youngster visiting here a couple of weeks ago landed a 25lb. rainbow out of that creek that he will never forget. There are ramps and small docks to fish from. Artificial and single barbless only. Good luck!
Thank you all for the information and the locations for handicap’s and accessability for a wheel chair. I am still able to get around pretty much, it is my wife that needs the chair. We try to stay together as much as possible and she loves the out of doors. She still uses an old Phillipson her dad bought her in the sixties when she was in high school. Again thank you all for the wonderful replies, websites and photo’s - Rich
Hey, Google the keywords michigan wheelchair fishing. You might like what you find. I just glanced at the results, but they seemed to include more than a few places where your bride can fish. (Keywords handicapped fishing turned up nothing for me.)
Go for it!
[This message has been edited by oldfrat (edited 07 February 2006).]
Missouri state fish parks all have paved handycap fishing sites. Indiana boat launch area have a part where a wheel chair person can go from a chair into boat without going ground level to boat.
If you’re in the U. P. You might want to check out the East Branch Fox River Campground. There is a big spring-fed pond that is a designated trout lake with a nice platform over the lake. In the same area there are several drive-up chair accessable fishing sites for warm water fish in the Seney National Wildlife Refuge but they have only limited backcast space.
all leaders tangle; mine are just better at it than most. Jim
Thank you everyone for all the information and special comments. My wife is suppose to get new artifical knees soon, we know it won’t be easy at first for her ,but we are hoping to regain some mobility. All that we know who had the operation have extened words of encourgement and say they wish they had done it years ago. Fish ON! Rich & Sharon
