Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Because of tensions between landowners and anglers, the Jackson River below Gathright Dam hasn't been stocked with trout for more than 10 years, yet the river supports a healthy population of naturally reproducing rainbow (pictured) and brown trout.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Roanoke neurosurgeon John Feldenzer and wife Karen were among the first buyers in The River's Edge on the Jackson River development, paying $600,000 for their property in 2008. The Feldenzers and The River's Edge developer are suing two anglers, claiming that they, and not the state, own the streambed, and so can control fishing and wading access.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Mark Taylor | The Roanoke Times

Retired state fisheries biologist Larry Mohn pored over centuries-old land grants, such as these copies printed from microfiche, while helping the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries develop a fishing access map of the Jackson River below Gathright Dam.

COVINGTON -- On a warm day last summer, a trio of fishermen launched kayaks on the Jackson River for a day of fly fishing.

About five minutes later, barely a half-mile downstream from the river's Smith Bridge public access point, they got out of their kayaks and began wading, casting flies into a fishy-looking riffle. Karen Feldenzer, owner of a newly constructed riverbank home, shot video.

Nearby, one of a gauntlet of riverside signs erected by the developer of a housing project called The River's Edge on the Jackson River warned that the river was private, and that stopping, wading and fishing were not allowed.

But just upriver, at the U.S. Forest Service-owned access area where the men had launched their kayaks, another sign and map noted that the river was open to the public.

Days later, warrants for criminal trespassing arrived at the anglers' homes.

The case was dropped, but that wasn't the end of it.

A few months later, the landowners sued the anglers for trespass in civil court, seeking $10,000 in damages.

The parties were in court last week for a procedural hearing and the case is headed toward a trial, not yet scheduled.

The landowners say that their deeds, which date to the 18th century, give them ownership of the river bottom, and that they pay taxes on the property.

The fishermen say they were simply following rules set by the state, which by publishing maps of open fishing areas established itself as owner of the river bottom.

The clash is attracting attention from river users and landowners.

The crux of the case is simple: Who owns the river bottom?

If the anglers win, will the ruling clarify public vs. private property access issues on a river where emotions have been prickly for decades?

If the landowners win, will it set off a wave of similar challenges that could lead to the privatization of vast sections of the Jackson and other Virginia rivers?

Not going away

A 44-year-old avid fly angler from Charlottesville, William "Dargan" Coggeshall has fished many of Virginia's trout waters.

He is always drawn back to the Jackson, a so-called tailwater trout fishery created by cold water discharges from Gathright Dam, which forms Lake Moomaw.

"It's the river I love," Coggeshall said.

Coggeshall, owner of a company that helps children with cognitive learning disabilities, knew enough about the Jackson to avoid a 3-mile section deemed off-limits in a 1990s court case. That decision said deeds dating to 18th century grants from the king of England gave some riverside landowners rights to the river bottom and to the fish in that section.

That still leaves roughly 14 miles of trout water that the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries deems open to public fishing.

On that day last summer, Coggeshall was fishing with his brother-in-law, builder Charlie Crawford of Roanoke, and Crawford's pastor, Frank Garden, also of Roanoke.

They planned to paddle several river miles, stopping and fishing along the way.

Maps posted at public river access points, and on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website, highlight the upstream 3-mile section as off-limits to wading and fishing. But they note that the rest of the river to Covington is open to the public.

It was those maps that Coggeshall had brought up when, during several previous trips to the Jackson, he had been approached by riverside landowners Frank Sponaugle or his son, Matt Sponaugle.

Frank Sponaugle owns property bordering about 2 miles of the Jackson on the river's west bank.

Matt Sponaugle's company, Covington-based North South Development LLC, owns property across the river, including The River's Edge on the Jackson River subdivision.

The website for The River's Edge project states "residents will experience the privilege of access to over four miles of private river frontage and year-round fly-fishing -- all from their own backyard."

The Sponaugles had told Coggeshall that the river through their property was private because of the king's grants.

But other than an occasion when a deputy sheriff who was summoned to the river checked Coggeshall's fishing license, no legal action had been taken against Coggeshall until last summer.

"He knew that I was not going away," Coggeshall said of Matt Sponaugle. "He knew I had done my homework."

Fishing guide Blane Chocklett of Roanoke, who has permission from the Sponaugles to fish the river, said he understands the frustration of riverside landowners.

"I'm obviously for fishermen to fish rivers freely," Chocklett said. "But you have landowners who pay taxes on the river bottom, and whether they have crown grants or not, people should respect their privacy."

On the day they are alleged to have trespassed, Coggeshall, Crawford and Garden didn't see the Sponaugles, Coggeshall said.

He said he did see Karen Feldenzer, who along with husband Dr. John Feldenzer owns two River's Edge lots and a newly constructed riverside home. She was taking video of the fishermen.

Coggeshall said the first trespassing warrants were served on him and his fellow fishermen a couple of days later.

An Alleghany District Court judge dropped the criminal trespassing charges. In February, the Feldenzers, whose primary residence is in Roanoke County, and North South Development filed a civil lawsuit against the men, seeking $10,000 in damages and an injunction ordering them to stop fishing that section of the river.

Garden, whose only day on the river was the one that led to the lawsuit, has since been dropped as a defendant.

River retreat

On a recent warm evening, Karen Feldenzer and a friend sat in deck chairs in a riffle near her Jackson River home.

She pointed out the spot where the three men had been fishing. She declined to talk about the lawsuit.

After last week's hearing in Alleghany County, Matt Sponaugle said Coggeshall's repeated refusals to quit fishing on their property contributed to the decision to pursue legal action. He declined to comment in detail.

James Jennings, the Roanoke attorney representing North South Development and the Feldenzers, said his clients will show in court that grants and deeds prove the river bottom where the men were standing is private property.

"We're pretty confident on the grant," Jennings said. "Our view of both the crown grant and the commonwealth grant is that those precede any statutory reservation to the commonwealth of waters of the state."

The lawyer said the landowners pay real estate taxes on the river bottom.

"So one of the things the landowners are upset about is they are paying taxes on the streambed and having to go into court and having to bring a civil case against individuals to protect their property rights," Jennings said.

Jennings, himself a fly fisherman, said he is perplexed that a state agency would encourage public access on a river where state ownership is in question.

"I've communicated with various agencies of the commonwealth and everything I've gotten back says, 'Prove it, and we don't care if you're paying real estate taxes.' So I've got to go to court to prove it," Jennings said.

David Whitehurst, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries director of business and wildlife resources, said the agency's guidance to fishermen on the Jackson River is based on state law that says, barring special grants, "beds of the bays, rivers, creek and the shores of the sea" are the property of the state.

"The guidance we have is that the bottoms belong to the commonwealth unless proven otherwise," Whitehurst said.

That's why maps note as off-limits the 3-mile upstream section declared private in the 1990s court case that involved landowners and fishing guide Chuck Kraft.

Larry Mohn, a DGIF fisheries biologist who retired this spring after more than 30 years, helped develop the agency's map. He said state officials hoped the map would clarify fishing rights on the river, where many landowners outside the established kings grant areas have posted signs on riverbanks claiming fishing was not allowed.

Mohn said he and other DGIF staffers spent days in courthouses researching deeds and grants before the map was published. He said the research supports the agency's position that, other than the 3-mile section from the Kraft case, the river is public.

A June 2009 letter from DGIF fisheries division chief Gary Martel to Matt Sponaugle, prompted by angler concern over posting at The River's Edge, confirmed the agency's position and further noted that posting the land could be a violation of state law.

Citing the commonwealth's interest in the ownership of the Jackson River bed, Scott Street, the Richmond attorney representing the fishermen, asked at Monday's court hearing that the state be brought into the court case.

Judge Bo Trumbo denied the request.

Precedent setting?

Some fishermen feared the Kraft case would launch a wave of landowner challenges against fishing.

It did prompt other Jackson River landowners to post signs claiming king's grant water, where fishing and stopping was not allowed.

This is the first formal legal challenge to come up since the Kraft case. And there is a major difference.

In the Kraft case, the fishing guide did not dispute that riverbed ownership could be traced to crown grants. Instead, the defense focused on fishing rights, unsuccessfully arguing that the grants did not provide for the owners to have exclusive fishing rights.

The new challenge "is not a fishing case," said Jennings. "This is a walking on land case."

Coggeshall said he didn't consider trying to duck the legal fight.

"I looked at this and said, if I roll over, nothing stops the next landowner and next landowner from pursuing civil litigation to privatize the river," Coggeshall said.

He's raising money for his defense through the recently created Virginia Rivers Defense Fund, hoping to leverage concern that a loss in the case could lead to further river closures.

"I've run up $20,000 in legal fees," said Coggeshall. "That's a lot of money and I was following the law.

"How does our country allow a rule-follower to spend his kids' college fund because he doesn't want a state river to be taken away from the public?"

The property owners are racking up legal bills as well, said Jennings.

"You need a mechanism that enables the landowners to demonstrate without having to spend the kind of money that plaintiffs are having to spend that they are the proper owners of their land," Jennings said. "And the commonwealth has to honor that ownership."