Memorial Bridge - Bismarck

[TheWalleye]

Are you able to park on the Bismarck side and walk down to the water? There is a no trespassing sign but I get the impression its for the road to the water tower thing. I love Bismarck but there is not a lot of fishing access in town.

 

[b2down]

The best access would be to park at the sand volleyball courts on the northwest corner of Sertoma Park. It's only a couple hundred yards south of the Memorial Bridge.

 

[dean nelson]

All shore lines in Bismarck below the ordinary high water mark are open to fishing. The area you talk about is all open even above the mark.

 

[Lycanthrope]

the missouri is for landowners only, unless you have a boat....

 

[TheWalleye]

The best access would be to park at the sand volleyball courts on the northwest corner of Sertoma Park. It's only a couple hundred yards south of the Memorial Bridge.

What about the bridge parking lot itself? That'd be about 20 yards or so.

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the missouri is for landowners only, unless you have a boat....

Couldn't agree more, really sucks for us guys who don't have a boat.

 

[Sum1]

You can park in the bridge parking lot.

 

[dean nelson]

What about the bridge parking lot itself? That'd be about 20 yards or so.

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Couldn't agree more, really sucks for us guys who don't have a boat.

Like I said 100% of the shoreline in bismarck and mandan is open to you if you are willing to do the work getting there. It's a bitch side hilling on the rocks but it's an option. Other then not being able to drive to the shore bismarck has great access. Hell the area from the north edge of Southport north all the way to flipping misty waters is wide open and that makes up 90% of the bismarck side. how much more open could it get? Mandan side is a bit tricker but not much. You have heskit in the north and huge swaths from the car bodies down to past the train bridge then the area from main street down to Freddy's no matter what the condo people say. Then throw in probably close to 200 miles of open shore from just south of town to the state line on both sides of the river/lake and Bismark has probably the best access to shore fishing you will find. Just have to walk for allot of it thus why my shore fishing tackle box is a backpack style.

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Get yourself one of these it makes things way easier. The black peace hanging down is a rod career leaving your hand free for the bait bucket and full stringer.

 

[wildeyes]

Dean that sign you talk about is from the condo's. For some reason they think they (own) that bit of sand. Good luck with that! I had someone tell me about it from the condo. I was going to check it out and then spend time fishing in the (no trespass area)because as far as I know that's corps land and very fishable.

 

[dean nelson]

Actually it's not corp ground per se. The river in the bismarck area is controlled by the state water commission. I fished it a couple times this spring and had the cops called on me once. Cop kicked a couple kids off the rocks but stopped them and told them they could stay when i broke down how the property laws work along the river. The reality is you could set up a goose spread on that sandbar and let the shotguns blaze and be perfectly legal.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I thought they changed the law a few years ago so that landowners control the land actually to the waters edge, to prevent people from using he sandbars in front of homeowners property.... TOTAL BS imo, but thats what I remember, from FBO maybe.

 

[freiday31]

The condos do own that property. An easement was granted to put in that road and water station. Happen to know some residents there.

 

[dean nelson]

No its still ordinary high water mark as far as I know. They had a crack down on people driving atv's below the mark a couple years back but that's the only change I've seen.

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The condos do own that property. An easement was granted to put in that road and water station. Happen to know some residents there.

So your saying these condos own out to the red line? I would be very interested to see the info on that considering the orange line is city limits!

 

[freiday31]

No its still ordinary high water mark as far as I know. They had a crack down on people driving atv's below the mark a couple years back but that's the only change I've seen.

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So your saying these condos own out to the red line? I would be very interested to see the info on that considering the orange line is city limits!

I guess I wasn't aware that land outside of city limits can't be owned. Is the Missouri different than all the other rivers in the state? If you canoe down the knife river, you are on public property. If you get out on shore, you are trespassing. No different than shoreline of lakes unless otherwise noted by law.

 

[dean nelson]

Actually that's not the case. The knife, hart and cannonball have all been judged to be navigable water ways thus making them sovereign territory so ordanary high water mark is the rule of law on them as well. Basically if your on mud or sand your good if your on grass by trees your trespassing if posted.

 

[Brian Renville]

Same story up here. It really comes out during paddlefishing season. A person can boat to and fish any shoreline they want as long as the water is below the ordinary high water mark. Really pisses some homeowners off but that's the rules. For your average shore fisherman though it's the access to the shoreline that can be a struggle. Most places are posted/locked up as tight as can be on the roads in so decent access can be pretty scarce.

 

[shorthairsrus]

Go south. The fishing in town is overated

 

[espringers]

Good topic.

 

[TheWalleye]

I know you can hike the sand/rocks along the bank as long as i'm not trucking through someones yard, but with my army of kids it makes it a pain in the rear sometimes. Same applies when fishing in town verses heading out of town. I usually only have an hour or so to go out and to make it worth my time I like to stick close to town. If i'm going out for the entire day I prefer to get away from Bis.

 

[fly2cast]

Looking at some GIS data for Bismarck, it looks like the condo does own a parcel of land on the river. I didn't know that they could do that. Jerks. The picture is of parcels in Bismarck. Its the only parcel on the river owned like this in Bismarck (from what I can tell). I would guess you could park under the bridge and walk around this tract of land.



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Speaking of fishing around Bismarck, have any of you fished inside any of the marinas around Bismarck? I see lots of fish along the rip rap in Southport and not just carp. Looks like some nice bluegill, crappie and smallmouth bass.

 

[TheWalleye]

I have never fished any of them, but was complaining about no near ice fishing spots and a guy said he ice fishes in a marina north of town and has pretty solid luck. So i don't see why you couldn't if you weren't trespassing to get to them in the first place.