Georgia lawmakers passed legislation on the last day of this year’s General Assembly session guaranteeing Georgians the right to fish in navigable portions of the state’s rivers and streams.
While the public’s right to fish had been established in Georgia for generations, Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders saw a need to codify it in state law after a property owner along a stretch of the Flint River known as Yellow Jacket Shoals declared fishing from the bank on its side of the river off limits. Four Chimneys LLLP sued the state, accusing the Georgia Department of Natural Resources of failing to enforce the ban.
“[Senate Bill 115] achieved a remarkable amount of clarity of [fishing] rights,” said Gordon Rogers, executive director of Flint Riverkeeper, an Albany-based environmental group that supported the bill. “What remains is where do those rights apply?”
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