# Elite redfish series to hold tournament on private property.



## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

How weird is this. They more or less got kicked out of that part of the state, I guess this is the only way for them to come back. 

It's important to point out that last year this tournament got threatened by the sheriff at their captains meeting. Those "pros" bitched and complained like a bunch of little girls about how ridiculous it is. 



> The Elite Redfish Series‎ _to_ Elite Classic Kick Off
> February 14 at 9:29pm
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> 
> ...


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

Here is the article from the Louisiana Sportsman last year about the sheriff and land owners antics at the captains meeting. I wish I had the stroke to get the sheriff to warn people for me. The Elite tour took down the video for obvious reasons.

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=9577



> privatewaters from TheEliteSeries on Vimeo.
> 
> Capt. Steve Smith, a Lafayette-based charter guide who works out of both Cypremort Point and Big Lake, also fishes the Elite Redfish Series across the Southeastern U.S.
> 
> ...


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## Tx_Whipray (Sep 4, 2015)

Interesting. I grew up in Port Arthur and my Grandfather and I used to fish in there all the time when I was a kid. Of course, that was the 70s and 80s..different time. My grandfather said in the 40s and 50s, before they started dredging all the channels through there, some of the ponds were almost glass clear. I fished some of the marsh on the north end of the lake a couple of years ago with an old high school buddy, and he said that as long as you stay out of there during duck season, nobody will bother you. Of course, a couple of guys on a trolling motor are a little different that an armada of tournament Redfish boats.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

It just sets a very poor precedence. Now every mouth breathing idiot with marsh property will think they can charge people for access. It's bad enough that state and federal tax dollars go into protecting their interests, now could be paying to access the very property we are also paying to protect. 

Teddy Roosevelt is turning in his grave.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

There are some areas in Texas that are without a doubt public waters and people have put up barricades blocking access. One of them is a winding creek that opens up into a chain of marsh lakes and not long ago someone drove galvanized poles in each bank and ran two cables across with a lock in the middle. It pisses me off to no end.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

I don't know anything about how Texas handles their tidal water. However, I do like to advocate civil disobedience and suggest you cut that gate with a pair of bolt cutters. 

If you want to make your head hurt, have a look at the CPRA and their $1.2 Billion plan for 25,000 acres of private property in Dulac Louisiana. That's state and federal money.


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## Tx_Whipray (Sep 4, 2015)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> There are some areas in Texas that are without a doubt public waters and people have put up barricades blocking access. One of them is a winding creek that opens up into a chain of marsh lakes and not long ago someone drove galvanized poles in each bank and ran two cables across with a lock in the middle. It pisses me off to no end.


WF?


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Interesting...anyone else pick up on this?

_The commitment from the anglers will include no running in the marsh, trolling motor/fishing only and a promise to do their part to protect the habitat this club and land owners have worked so hard to create._

I wish they'd commit to not thrashing the flats and grass here in the Bay.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

What good are those fancy tower boats then? They should learn to fish off poling skiffs. All the tower boats do around the areas I fish are stand on their burn bar console, drive with their feet and herd redfish and burn flats where other guys are trying to actually catch fish instead of run over a school, do a 180 and make one cast at a few of the stragglers that haven't already headed to the intercoastal.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

Never mind their boats and tactics, let's talk about how the state of Louisiana can not host a saltwater fishing tournament without getting permission from property owners. Without this cooperation from Waist Deep Duck club this Elite Series event does not take place.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

Let's also keep in mind that the Elite Series is the very same organization who uploaded a video of a Sheriff Deputy explaining to them how everything south of I10 was private and if you were stopped you had to be able to _prove_ you were not in the wrong. The fishermen in the video were blown away by what the deputy was saying and expressed their displeasure. 

Guess what. They have taken the video down and now everyone is all of a sudden perfectly ok with the arrangement. 

Zero integrity from these people. None. They are spineless cowards.


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## KnotHome (Jul 21, 2009)

I hate these big, commercial productions that ruin outdoor pastimes.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> What good are those fancy tower boats then?


Well...its not all tourney guys...we have one associated with a TV show that's been burning flats here in Upper Tampa Bay lately. We were poling an edge recently and he came by on plane with his jack plate so high the damn thing sounded like an air boat. He's running one of those Texas style boats with no freeboard and a big tower stuck in the middle...so he sticks out like a sore thumb in an area normally inhabited by poling skiffs and kayaks...


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

crboggs said:


> Well...its not all tourney guys...we have one associated with a TV show that's been burning flats here in Upper Tampa Bay lately. We were poling an edge recently and he came by on plane with his jack plate so high the damn thing sounded like an air boat. He's running one of those Texas style boats with no freeboard and a big tower stuck in the middle...so he sticks out like a sore thumb in an area normally inhabited by poling skiffs...


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## Anderson Guide Service (Feb 17, 2017)

In Texas all navigable waterways are public property. Regarding land pretty much if there is salt grass and other water grasses it is public land. It is usually easy to tell where the public land ends because there normally is a small bluff/rise. There are very few exceptions, not even the Aransas Wildlife Refuge can enforce their signs posted in the mouths of the creeks. The main exceptions are spanish land grants that have always been surveyed by ways and means. Not sure what the method of survey has to do with anything though. If a landowner tries to block a waterway they can get in big trouble especially if someone ended up getting hurt. I know an older guy that nearly lost his feet because someone put up a barbed wire fence years ago. He was running his airboat up a creek in the dark and the top wire was right at ankle level!!! Ouch

There are some new laws regarding lands lost by hurricanes but I am not sure about them. I believe they mainly involve building your land back up.


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## Rayreds (Oct 24, 2016)

In Texas It's against the law to put up a fence that does not fence something in. Throw back for the cattle days when a neighbor would put up a fence to stop his neighbors cows from grazing open land.


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## Tx_Whipray (Sep 4, 2015)

So a guy from Victoria won the tournament. I wonder where he fished...(seriously, I don't know. Not trying to be coy)


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