is it legal to fish off a balcony?

Question

i live in a 2nd-floor walkup with a balcony *right over* a river.  i mean literally, step off the rail and "splash!".  so i always see fish down there and today i thought "why not catch lunch?"  and tossed a line over.  within minutes, i was hauling up fish after fish.  i tossed the bigger ones back (for conservation purposes - they're of breeding size) and kept the smaller ones for eating (sweeter and tastier than the big ones anyway).

couple hours later, my landlord is knocking on the door - decent about it, but still - telling me it's illegal to fish off the balcony and i'll get him in trouble.

now, there's a dock about 20ft downstream and ppl (including the landlord) frequently fish off it.

so what's the difference, except i can't get as far into the stream as they can (half of them don't even bother pulling lines when boats and floaties go by!).

chris · Accepted Answer

Your landlord sets the rules for the building. There is no law against what you fish from, you can technically fish from a plane if you could figure out how. So your land lord is full of beans on the law, but he can tell you, not from his building.

Glenn Roberson · Answer

That sounds very strange to me.  Assuming you have the appropriate fishing licenses and there are no "seasons" on the particular fish you are catching, I can't see the difference between fishing from a "fishing spot" and fishing from a structure next to the bank of the river.

I would check with your local Wildlife and Fisheries office on the rules about that.  Are people allowed to fish from boats?  Then it would seem that you could get a small boat, launch it from (or tie it to) your balcony, and fish from that.

Andrew · Answer

It's illegal to keep small fish so you. Just broke a law and also ya it's illegal... Sounds super fun but it's illegal when you throw your fish back they probably get hurt bad and also a balcony is not a fishing spot

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is it legal to fish off a balcony?

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