Highway 20 access on the lower Yuba river.

[amoeba]

Do you think we have claim to a prescriptive easement? For both the new north side gate and Hamondton Smartville road closure ? It seems to me ( a layperson ) all the elements for prescriptive easement are in place. Must this easement be established in court, or does it already exist based merely on fact ? Could one use that as a defense against a trespassing suit ( either civil or criminal)?

Thanks,

Pete Koistinen
Yuba River angler

I believe it is entirely on an already existing, Public easement, consisting of a Public road (Old HWY 20, now known as Parks Bar Road) and the easement purchased by the State (CalTrans) to build the new HWY 20 bridge. The gate is likely illegal. Yuba County Supervisor Messick has not responded to my inquiry.

[amoeba]

IOW, an express easement. I am seeking verification by State Lands Commission on this

[cyama]

I spoke to Mike Lee today and he said the board extended the resolution for another 18 months three weeks ago. He said our only option would be to talk to the County board. I think we should at least attend the next meeting. They have a Zoom option to attend

[yubaman]

Chris,

Interesting, and I am sure he is correct. I guess, my question is, why is that not shown in any of the meeting minutes? He probably has no answer to that one. . .

I also notice from the initial closure, that the gate and road would be opened when “certain measures have been met”. . . WTF is that, talk about vague. The vote was 4-1 to approve closure, Supervisor Fuhrer being the only No vote. Maybe he is a person with a different viewpoint on this.

The long and short at this point, is that the Yuba County Sheriff, Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and Cal Fire have all weighed in on the closure. This has been a pain in the butt for Yuba County and they do not want to deal with it. It is an uphill swim, but not an impossible one, at this point. Cal Trout and others could be a player in this fight?

Hope you are fishing a lot . . . We should hook up for a few days . . . You still in Vacaville? I retired 2 years ago, lots of available days on my hands!

Bob

Bob

[Julian75]

Hi all this is my first post on this site . I’ve been planning on drifting this river section for awhile and seeing there is no way to get to the water is very disappointing. Reading these post and looking on line for answers, it really sounds like this is being done in the interest of the private fish clubs. I bet these board members are apart of the clubs or know someone who is . The actions closing the roads turns the entire section into a private club . I may be completely wrong and hate coming into the group with this opinion but it feels to fishy not to think this way .

Hope to meet some of you on the river and maybe find a partner that can row and or at least attempt I and drift some water with me , Julian

[Al Baltz]

Wow! I mentioned to a friend I was thinking I'd run up to the Yuba and see if any fish were rising to Skwalas. He recommended I look into access issues first. I had no idea this was going on. Thank you all, particularly amoeba and yubaman for trying to chase it down. It goes against what I'd always heard, that the public had access to navigable waters of California. And an easement to access below the high water mark on private property.
Has jmac, the attorney who offered to help on this, been able to start an action? Has the media been alerted? This does seem like the bureaucracies are stonewalling the fishermen.

In the mean time- where can I enter the Yuba to fish?

Thanks again for fighting the good fight you guys. Well done!

[yubaman]

You can enter either at Hammond Grove Park or Sycamore Ranch and with a little hoofing, get to plenty of decent water. However, the flows are over 8,000 cfs at the moment making the river un-fish able. If you tried to wade, you’d be in big trouble.

[Al Baltz]

Thank you Yuba Man!

[Lance Gray]

We need boots on the ground with this one. Thanks to all the folks who have worked hard on this! Everyone appreciates it! I have sent emails and letters to folks. If there is anything I get back to you or if there is anything I can help with, send me an email or text.

Thanks

[Greg Vinci]

I had a conversation with the manager of the Yuba Angler's Club which owns a mile and a half of shoreline property
on the north side of the river upstream from the bridge and he sent me a complete explanation of the location of public and private
access on the river. You can see a copy of what he sent me by logging on to https://www.californiaflyfishingrepo...ba-access-info at my www.californiaflyfishingreports.com website