In a recent Pennsylvania case, a fly fishing club sued to prevent nonmembers from fishing in a section of the Lehigh River. The club leased considerable acreage along two miles of the Lehigh River and stocked the river with fish. Claiming that the land and the river were the club's private property, the club sued to exclude any nonmembers.
In hearing the case on appeal, the Pennsylvania Superior Court observed that the Ohio, Monongahela, Youhiogeny, Allegheny, Susquehanna, Juniata, Schuylkill, Lehigh, and Delaware Rivers are all "navigable" public rivers as designated in 1826 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. When declaring the rivers to be navigable public waterways, the supreme court denied the owners of the land along the banks of those rivers the exclusive right to fish in the rivers. Instead, the court found that the right to fish in the navigable rivers of Pennsylvania belongs to the Commonwealth and thus to the public.
In the case involving the fly fishing club, the superior court held that the judicial declaration of navigability made in 1826 is essentially final. The club contended that the stretch of the river along its land was not actually navigable and had never been navigable. But the superior court found that once the rivers were declared navigable their entire lengths were deemed public property owned by the Commonwealth. The court refused to engage in a "piecemeal" analysis of the navigability of a portion of the Lehigh River.
While the legislature can pass laws for river management, it cannot declare any other Pennsylvania rivers to be navigable, nor can it change the status of any of the navigable rivers already identified by the court. Members of the public cannot trespass on private land, but they are entitled to fish, in compliance with state fishing regulations, on all public rivers.