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Meandering river rules

Iowa_Buckeye

Iowa_Buckeye

Active Member
I like to do a little duck hunting and was wondering if anyone knows what the rules are for hunting the backwaters of a meandering river. Is it legal for the public to hunt as long as you stay below the normal high water line, or do you need the landowners permission?
 
not sure but the upside is you wont have to worry about it this year as most backwater honey holes are high and dry this year
 
I think there are only certain rivers you can legally walk and hunt...otherwise you would need permission from all landowners to walk it.. I know I read it somewhere, because I had the same question a few years ago..I may be really wrong with this, but I thought there was only like ten rivers in Iowa you could go down without having permission and be legal. I will do some digging
 
I thought the law was you had to float it....

So that would pretty much rule out walking.

I never was interested in attempting it so didn't look any further into the rules.
 
A web search turned up:
"A Meandered river is one in which adjacent land owners own the land above the high water mark. Land below the high water mark is public, giving citizens the right to explore sandbars at leisure without worry of trespassing. Land above that level is usually private, and should not be utilized by people navigating streams except when portaging around an obstruction."

http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/riverprograms/meanderedmap.pdf

I see a potential problem here. What is the "high water mark"? Would the water level of 2008 flood be used for the as the "high water mark" and thus the "public boundary"?

I think a rational view is if you are between the banks of the waterway, you are obeying the meandering stream guidelines. Ox bows (old river beds now disconnected) would be a situation I would try to avoid.
 
I am not asking about the main river channel, but rather a backwater off of the river that comes from a feeder stream. I would take the high water mark to mean within the banks of the river or backwater, but not a flood line. The real question is does the statement from the dnr site above pertain to a backwater? I have always assumed no as it is not part of the main channel of the meandering river.
 
I don't know the law. But I would look at it from the landowners point of view. How would you like having people walk up the creek, then shoot fowl over your ground or have birds going down on your ground?

The law may read different. What are the unwritten courtesies?

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I looked this up and there are very few meandered rivers in Iowa. The Missouri, Mississippi, parts of the Des Moines, a few miles of the Raccoon by Des Moines and few sections of the rivers out in Eastern Iowa (I'm in Western Iowa). There is a map of them if you google them. Otherwise you have to float them and you cannot get out and touch the bottom under the water or the banks without the landowners consent. Some friends of mine had trappers walking their river and saying it was ok as long as they stayed below the the high water mark. Our conservation officer didn't know the rule on this one or which ones are meandered.
 
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