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Fighting for your Rights -Bowfishing Lake Houston

2M views 69 replies 31 participants last post by  ak 
#1 ·
I just wanted to update everyone on the status of bowfishing on Lake Houston. I sent Sgt. Tolan Harding, who is in charge of Lake Patrol on Lake Houston an email yesterday. He is in charge of enforcing the law on the lake, and as it is currently written, it is illegal to discharge a bow. It doesn't matter whether you are hunting or fishing, it is illegal.

Here is what I sent Sgt. Harding yesterday

Officer Harding,

I would like to start by saying that I have the utmost respect for law officers, and I have two cousins that are Harris County Sheriffs. I am writing you because it has been brought to my attention that Lake Houston Patrol is now writing tickets for Bowfishing on Lake Houston. I am an avid angler and have been fishing Lake Houston for over 20 years. I primarily fish for bass and crappie, but unfortunatly the gar population in Lake Houston have become so out of control that many of the small creeks and flats were bass and crappie were once found, are now overrun with gar. It is not uncommon to find 20 or 30 gar in a creek less than 200 yards long. They ambush any game fish that tries to come by and they eventually run the game fish out of that area. The gar have no natural predators in this region and no one fishes for them because they are considered a trash fish. The result is an overabundence of gar. I have tried many tactics to get rid of these gar, but it seems that the only method that is effective is to take them with a bow. I am not doing this for fun, I am doing this because if I don't, no one else will. I am doing this because someone has to do something to stop these creatures from damaging the game fish population in the lake to a point where the effects are irreversable.

I have contacted several city Council Members to see what it would take to get this ordinance changed and they were unaware that such an ordinance existed. I asked them what it would take to get this law changed, and one of the council members actually told me that this is not a priority and that they have more important issues to deal with. I was shocked that I got a response like that, but I was not discouraged. The council woman did not realize that I have an Uncle who is a retired lawyer and an avid angler. I spoke with him and he looked up the regulation that prevents bowfishing, and he thinks that it is a law that prohibits "practicing archery" in Lake Houston City Park. He said that if that is the case, the law is being missaplyed to bowfishing and that giving a ticket to a bowfisher is violating the spirit of the law.

I just wanted to find out if this is the law that is being used to ban bowfishing on the creeks and tributaries that feed into Lake Houston?

If this is the statute that is being used, I was wondering who I can contact at HPD so that I can have an officer come watch me safely discharge my bow and issue me a citation. I am going to put an end to this nonsense, and after I receive my citation we are going to file suit against the City of Houston Parks Department. Texas Parks and Wildlife recognizes bowfishing as a legitimate way to attain non game fish, and the perch jerkers on the City Council should not be overriding TPWD decision. I think that it is ridiculous that HPD is going after anglers who are trying to improve the game fish habitat for all to enjoy. I know that change is not going to come overnight, but filing a suit will force City Council to do there job and reexamine the statute. I know that breaking the law is not the ideal solution, but even Martin Luther King had to spend a night in jail before he was able to enjoy his god given rights.

Best Regards,

Brandon

Here was his reply:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding bow fishing on Lake Houston. Currently bow fishing on Lake Houston is prohibited by city ordinance. Specifically, Chapter 32, Section 32-34, "Hunting and Firearms" No person shall hunt any animal or shoot, fire or discharge any pistol, shotgun or rifle, other firearm or archery arrow in, on, along or across the parks. The provisions of this sections shall not apply to designated target ranges.
The waters of Lake Houston are considered a city park and as such are governed by Chapters 23 and 32 of the Code of Ordinances for the City of Houston.
Council Member Mike Sullivan is the Council Member for the Kingwood area that encompasses Lake Houston. City Council would have to amend Chapter 32 to allow discharging of an archery arrow on Lake Houston.
I can not endorse or encourage you to commit an act that would be a violation of city ordinance. However, if you are observed discharging an arrow in, on, along or across Lake Houston appropriate law enforcement action will be taken.
Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance to you.

Tolan W. Harding, Sergeant
Houston Police Department
Tactical Operations Division, Marine Unit - Lake Patrol
281 324 2250 office
281 324 2764 fax

Here was my response, I am still waiting for him to reply. If he doesn't respond, I will contact Council Member Mike Sullivan. We are going to get this taken care of one way or another.

Sgt. Tolan,

Thank you for getting back with me. I have contacted several city council members, but have not yet contacted Councilman Mike Sullivan. I will try to go through him before taking this matter through the judicial system. Hopefully he will give this matter more consideration than the other council members I contacted. I have already began collecting signatures to take to the city council meeting and was wondering if all of the citations that were issued for practicing archery on Lake Houston are public record? I think some of the people who have already been fined would be interested in helping us fight this bureaucratic battle.

I would also like to get your input on how you think this ordinance should be amended to allow legitimate bowfishing, without putting the public safety at risk. I was looking at the ordinance and it looks like this law was intended to protect people enjoying the park areas, such as Duessen Park, from being hit with a stray arrow. This is obviously a legitimate concern and I would not want a bystander to get injured from an errant arrow from someone practicing archery.

However, the difference is Archery and Bowfishing are not the same sport. In archery the shooter is shooting an arrow that can travel over 300 yards. In bowfishing the arrow is actually attached to the bow with a string. Therefore an arrow can only stray as far as the line is long. Most of the gar, carp, and tilapia that are shot are within 10 yards of the fisher, and most bowfishing lines are 40 yards or less. Therefore if you are more than 150 ft from the archer you are safe. Bowfishing is also different from archery in that you are always shooting down, into the water. With regular hunting you are shooting at a parallel angle or upward angle, to hit an object that is generally above sea level. This allows for the arrow to have a much larger danger zone. Simple physics will dictate that by shooting at a downward angle you are greatly minimizing the "danger" zone.

Furthermore, I would like to point out that the areas where people generally bowfish are the shallow creeks and tributaries that feed into Lake Houston, and not in the main portion of the lake itself. These areas are generally to shallow for recreational boaters and the only people who are in these secluded creeks are people who are out there bowfishing themselves. In all actuality the only people who utilize these waters are bowfishers, and most of these areas are so overpopulated with gar that you can't even fish for game fish there anymore.

I have done some research and found that almost all of the Lakes in Texas allow bowfishing. TPWD views bowfishing as a safe and legal way to capture non-game fish. The officials that regulate Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston, and Lake Sommerville all agree with TPWD and allow bowfishing and I can not find one reported instance of where a bystander was injured due to bowfishing.

I think that while this ordinance has the publics safety in mind, its based on fear and not facts. The facts are that Bowfishing is a legitimate means to catch fish recognized by TPWD. It is beneficial to the local ecosysytem and helps improve the habitat for our game fish species. And there is absolutely no evidence that supports that there is a need to ban bowfishing on Lake Houston in an attempt to provide for public safety.

I would like to get your input on how you think this ordinance should best be amended to allow bowfishing, while still making the public feel safe? Do you think that it should be limited by location (ie. Allowed in any water North of the 1960 Bridge). Or maybe it can be allowed as long as there are no bystanders within 100 yards? I just wanted to get your input since you are an Angler and are on the lake everyday and probably know more about this issue then all of the members on the City Council combined.

Best Regards,

Brandon
 
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#57 ·
I just received some terrible news and I thought I would share it with everyone who has been following this thread. Apparently Sgt. Tolan Wayne Harding is no longer with the Lake Patrol Unit and he has been transferred to another department within HPD. His tremendous efforts enforcing trivial laws will not be forgotten and I am sure that Lake Houston will be a much more dangerous place in his absence. He will be greatly missed and I sincerely hope that whatever beat he has been reassigned to does not require any judgment calls or critical thinking skills.
Hopefully the new Sgt. in charge of Lake Patrol will have the discretion to understand there are material differences between practicing archery and the TPWD sanctioned sport of bowfishing. I hope that he will also understand the intent of the City Ordinance that was taken out of context by his predecessor and that he will have more important matters to attend to than trying to harass sportsman who are out trying to rid the lake of trash fish and improve the natural habitat for the native desirable species. Over the last two years I have spoken with many of the officers who worked under Tolan Harding, and many of them said that they personally thought the city ordinance was being misconstrued but they had been given strict orders to "stop all bowfishing" by there former Sgt. Now that the Dick-tator is gone, hopefully these officers will be allowed to exercise discretion and determine what activities pose a public threat.
At this point, I am going to continue bowfishing the Lake as I did before I had the misfortune of running into Sgt. Harding. I am not going to make a big deal about it or bring attention to the fact that there was ever an issue. I still believe the intent of the City Ordinance was to protect kids on playgrounds from being hit by a stray arrows from those practicing archery in a city park, not to prevent people from shooting invasive species in muddy sloughs 2 miles from the nearest house.
I don't think it would be wise to host a bowfishing tournament on Lake Houston right now, and draw unnecessary attention to the issue. I think if we continue to be smart about it, follow the TPWD guidelines, and make sure to clean up after ourselves we will have a much more productive outcome. As much fun as it would be to fill the lake with airboats, mud motors and bright lights, I don't think it would be beneficial to our cause. I think we represent our sport in a courteous and respectful manner we will be able to win over the new Sgt. in charge and show him that bowfishing is a safe and legitimate activity that should be allowed on Lake Houston.
 
#59 ·
Well I don't think fishing the lake is a great idea either since it is not allowed right now.
However drawing attention is what is needed unlike what you are saying. Your trying to draw attention by bowfishing it now. But if they can legally get permission to do it with trollers then they will see how safe it can be. And there will be a greater supporting force instead of a lone ranger paying a fine.
 
#60 ·
Well fishermayne any update? I'm new to the site, though not new to this situation... been bowfishin' Lake Houston 20+ years, and a friend of mine and I used to take kids from our church out in canoes to get them into the outdoors... what fun we had... just a dang shame that such a fun and positive and productive activity for these young people was stopped by a bunch of jerks. The carp are very invasive and destructive species in that lake as well as the gar. during the spawn in the spring, we'd kill literally hundreds of both daily for a week or two. Hope we can get it fixed.
 
#61 ·
I like the letter and it makes plenty of sense to me--I actually had no clue bow fishing was not allowed in lake Houston. I have bow fished Livingston before without even giving it a thought. Hope you get something done about it because it is a legal way to fish for gar...but has anyone noticed that some idiot actually put gar on the species list this year? One gar per person per day...I never thought I would see that day! So if you were able to bow hunt gar in the lake it would take a long time to get them out if that law sticks around for a while! I would like to know how this turns out...
 
#63 ·
The one gar per/day limit is only for Alligator Gar. An overwhelming majority (99%) of gar I have seen on lake Houston are short nose, spotted, or longnose, which are not limited at all. I have shot many Alligator Gar, but never on Lake Houston. You can tell the differrence because Alligator Gar are generally larger, have a shorter nose, and they also have a double row of teeth. That is not to say there are not any on Lake Houston, I just have never seen or heard of one being caught.
 
#64 ·
Hey guys I am new to the boards but this is something that is dear to me because I grew up on a small tributary to the river in Humble and I lived on the water with my cousin bowfishing. A few things I will add here. I am a part of the Lake Houston Sports and recreation Foundation ( http://lakehoustonsports.com/ )and we are in pretty frequent contact with the TPWD so next time I talk to Mark Webb I will ask him what his opinion on this is. It should be pretty soon because we are supposed to go out on his shock boat within a few weeks. I know this issue is on the local level of government, but we also work with the area state legislator Dan Huberty a lot becuse he is in austin fighting for us to get the lake the support it should have been getting for the last 30 years or so. He has a lot of good contacts in the political world so I will put him on getting this rule changed. If I can get him and Mark Webb on board then we might be able to get this thing changed.
 
#66 ·
Just thought I would let you know the inside scoop about bowfishing Lake Houston. I raised some he77 a few years ago, and tried to get some legal clarification on the issue, but no one at The City of Houston Parks department would entertain taking on a project that didn't benefit them and that they couldn't get a kick back for. Â I tried talking to Rep. Sullivan, but he just lied to me, put me off for over a year, and eventually (thankfully) left office.Â

So, as far as it being legal: it is still a grey area. Â Technically bowfising on Lake Houston is not illegal, however, using archery arrows in a city park is against a city parks code. Â The city has a rule to protect the kids playing at city parks from getting hit by a stray arrows, and since ALL of Lake Houston is considered a city park, the code can be applied. Â The city code referred to is:

Chapter 32, Section 32-34, "Hunting and Firearms" No person shall hunt any animal or shoot, fire or discharge any pistol, shotgun or rifle, other firearm or archery arrow in, on, along or across the parks. The provisions of this sections shall not apply to designated target ranges."

There are two fundamental problems with attempting to use his code to argue that bowfishing is illegal.

1. Bowfishing is not Hunting.  The title of this section is "hunting and firearms" not "hunting and fishing".  Hunting an animal is completely different from fishing. And bowfishing is considered a form of fishing, not hunting, so it would not violate any part of the "no hunting animals" part of this code.  For further evidence of this, please see TPWD regulations, which require you to purchase a fishing license to bowfish; a hunting license is not required.

2. "Archery" Arrows are specifically prohibited, however, "Bowfishing" Arrows are not mentioned anywhere in the code.  The fact that the code specifically states that "archery" arrows are prohibited, would allow for a reasonable person to assume that other types of arrows may exist and thus would still be legal.  In fact other types of arrows do exist, and the fiberglass rods we use to stick fish, are inherently different from an archery arrow.  An archery arrow has several specific parts, including "flights" which are the feathers that help them fly further and straight.  The fact that these are absent from a bowfishing arrow is a material change, and would be evidence that the two types of arrows may share some similar characteristics, but are in no way the same.

This city code was wrongfully interpreted by the former head of the Lake Patrol, who was not an attorney. Â He was a Dick-tator and Sgt. Harding had decided that he could decide the laws of the lake. Many of the officers who worked for Harding told me they didn't agree with their Sgt's interpretation but just had to follow his orders. Â Sgt. Harding was transferred and I have not heard of any tickets being issued for bowfishing since he was De-throned. Â I did contact the City Attorneys office, but was told that since I had not received a citation, they wouldn't be able to issue an official review.Â

I did go bowfishing in Lake Houston several times over the last few years, but I always made sure that I only brought bowfishing arrows and left my archery arrows at home, so that there would be no confusion. Â I did so at my own risk and was prepared to receive a citation, so I had my go-pro ready to video record the entire interaction. Unfortunately, I did not see a single Lake Patrol officer on any of those outings.

The whole situation is just ridiculous. Â You literally have to fight every bureaucracy in The City of Houston, just to be able to go out and stick a fish. Â I feel that fishing is a basic human instinct and bowfishing is something Native Americans have been doing for thousands of years. But for some reason now some individuals with the city have decided that it is dangerous and too needs to be regulated. Â Pretty soon the city of Houston is going to require you to buy a permit if you want to grow grass in your yard. Â

There is one thing you can do if you want to avoid the crazies down at The City of Houston: just move to The Woodlands! I did and now I can bowfish Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston anytime I want without having to worry about HPDs water swine unit harassing me. Plus, you don't have the extra taxes, higher water rates, and terrible city services. Â I know its not all Mayor Porker's fault, but Kingwood and Lake Houston have gone wayyyyy down hill since Houston annexed it. Â
 
#69 ·
I kinda hate to dredge up an old post, but it seemed like a good place to start.

I've been in contact with my Houston city councilman Dave Martin about the possibility of changing the ordinance that prohibits bowfishing on Lake Houston. He is willing to tackle this, but would like to see more support for bowfishing on the lake before doing so.

If any of you guys have any interest in bowfishing on Lake Houston please contact Dave Martin's office. The contact for his office is Jessica Beemer and you can email her directly at Jessica.Beemer@houstontx.gov.
 
#70 ·
If it's really about knocking down the gar population I will tell you it's very easy to stick gar with a long boat gig (10-12ft). Maybe not so much the big alligator gar but you can stick needle nose all night. might be something to hold you over until you get the law changed.
 
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