Wakulla River questions and misc reports

[BloodyChamp]

I started at a certain popular bankfishing spot way east of the Wakulla River today and the locals had beat me to it. I’ve since found out that the dude in the best spot was the son of a friend of a friend kinda. He limited out on Redfish and Trout! Whew!

I scatted over to the Econfina and it was bad flooded, and there was a gator just relaxing out there in the current that could have swallowed my truck lol! I thought it was a tree! There was a young dude on the dock drowning worms and something told me I’d better check with him in case he was 1 of those never been fishing before types. This gator was 20 yards from the dock and less than that from the bank, but just by hearing the dude’s tone I could tell that wasn’t his first fishing trip. Furthermore he said there was a bigger one there earlier

So I ended up at the upper Wakulla Bridge. I know very little about that river as it’s just outside of my stomping grounds. I haven’t been on it besides that glass bottom boat when I was like 3 but I kid you not I REMEMBER it lol! I’d never seen anything like it.

Now cheese alert...it looked so much like the Wacissa River used to look, the Wacissa of course forever my homebase, that I about cried for a second because of course the Wacissa is in bad shape. The ribbon grass on the sides as thick as corn rows, the eel grass waving at me from the bridge lol, the sand bottom, ugh just beautiful and just like the old Wacissa. And then...mullet alert lol! There weren’t very many but there were enough for me to try them and low and behold I got 1 and it was a the biggest 1 I ever caught. Somewhere in the middle of all that I also saw 2 manatees.

Now about that fence...it’s illegal to go under it even if you’re just paddling? I thought sure the law was the you could go anywhere you wanted in any body of water as long as you launched legally. I realize the Wakulla is 1 of the most governed bodies of water in the literal world though.

There were a bunch of people there. I definitely want to go back and try the mullet again without swimmers everywhere. A normal fishing trip would be fun to if everything else is going to stay flooded all summer. I’ve never been to the Wakulla River Park either. Do any mullet hang out there?

[procraftwes]

That body of water is one of the only navigable waterways in the country that has a fence across it. Was a huge scandal and the people sued and lost in the 70's I think.

It's only legal because it's been there and people accept it.

[procraftwes]

Double post.

[BloodyChamp]

They sued to have it removed, not whether or not it was ok to cross or not. They said it wasn’t navigable above the fence. Yeah right lol but I do like the fence there. It keeps the same type of people out who ruined the Wacissa. If that fence wasn’t there people would be in that spring nonstop. Dynamiting it, castnetting mullet, and ultimately the whole river would be about like the Wacissa, no grass and all silt. I would like to make the paddle though. It sounds like 1 of the few but ever apparent laws that are against the law though, and I can’t afford the lawyer that would represent me all the way to Federal Court if I went across it.

[procraftwes]

They sued to have it removed, not whether or not it was ok to cross or not. They said it wasn’t navigable above the fence. Yeah right lol but I do like the fence there. It keeps the same type of people out who ruined the Wacissa. If that fence wasn’t there people would be in that spring nonstop. Dynamiting it, castnetting mullet, and ultimately the whole river would be about like the Wacissa, no grass and all silt. I would like to make the paddle though. It sounds like 1 of the few but ever apparent laws that are against the law though, and I can’t afford the lawyer that would represent me all the way to Federal Court if I went across it.

Whether it's beneficial or not you'll find very few rivers if any in the entire USA that are simply fenced off to keep people out.

[Gulf Coast]

You guys do a little search on and about Edward Ball, WS and the fence. Little history there, at least from what I've always been told.

[Srbenda]

You guys do a little search on and about Edward Ball, WS and the fence. Little history there, at least from what I've always been told.

"Equally interesting in Wakulla’s history is that of entrepreneur, financier, and railroad magnate Edward Ball, who owned a large tract of land around the springs nearly fifty years ago. A fence was put around Wakulla Springs to keep boaters out of the spring’s area. There was much public protest, and Ball was taken to court under the claim that he couldn’t fence off a navigable waterway. Ball won. Today, the fence is still in place, providing important protection for wildlife along the river."

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[woopty]

What I remember from the time is...

The fence is blocking a navagable waterway...
Ed Ball, who owned Wakulla Springs before it was a state park, was sued, but prevailed mostly because judges really didn't mess with Mr. Ball/Dupont at the time...
Lots of folks cried foul...

What I learned from that time is...

An incredible pristine waterway has been preserved.
Everyone needs to stay on this side of it. Leave it to the real natives.

woop

[procraftwes]

I'm glad it's there but I think it's the only case in the US where a fence is across a navigable river. Good outcome but any pretense that he won because he was right should be ignored.. He won because he was powerful.

Also if you get the chance to paddle from the 98 bridge to natural bridge you'd be shocked at how beautiful the St Marks is up there. Might be a few mullet up that way

[BloodyChamp]

I’ve since been told that there are sensors that sound off at the park??? That would explain why nobody has ever tried it. I mean I’ve never heard of ANYBODY trying it unlike everything else that’s off limits.

[Gulf Coast]

So the reason that we were always told, truth or not, is that Edward bought the land from the Indians back whenever and that the Indians owned the bottom of the river so it was put on the deed as part of the property. Censors on the property, I doubt it, LOL !!!

[THOMAS CITY CURVE]

I don't remember exactly how they got around or under the fence but someone went swimming up river several years ago and got ate by a crock !

[redcodefsu]

I don't remember exactly how they got around or under the fence but someone went swimming up river several years ago and got ate by a crock !

I thought it was the Creature from the Black Lagoon?

[BloodyChamp]

I mean you don’t go fishing anywhere without finding evidence of humans having been there, and you don’t ask around about a place without somebody telling you they’ve been there once even if it was 100 years ago, except for this place lol! Obviously an answer could simply be that there’s always a game warden nearby but that hasn’t much stopped Wakulla County people from anything else.

[reelhandy]

The Forbes Purchase was a deal between the Indians and a local Trading Company that transferred most of Wakulla and Franklin Counties to private ownership before Florida became a state. The US government recognized the purchase as legal and issued a land patent for it, once again before Florida Statehood. All the land, and waters, even the rivers and tidal waters out to St. George Island were considered private. A company called the Apalachicola Oyster Co. controlled the oyster beds as private aquaculture. In the 1920's a lawsuit came about concerning the tidal waters and the oyster beds, because the state wanted control. The state won and the tidal waters became public. The ownership of the upland waters were not claimed by the state. Over time the state basically bought their way into owning the rivers, but they didn't buy the Ball portion of the Wakulla. If the Wakulla River didn't originate from the Ball property, he probably would have lost his bid to block it. As it was he wasn't blocking a thorofare or commercial interest, since the river originated from a source that he owned, and since he also owned the underlying river bed, his fence was ruled legal under Florida law. Now the state owns it, and blocks it to prevent access because it's a park/wildlife refuge where fishing and hunting is prohibited.