It took me a long time to find this little pond That were used to fish. It used to be great. I located it and I took my 12-year-old son out today and caught a nice 3-4 pounder in the first half hour. A Few minutes later someone drives up and states that he owned the property now and refuse to let us fish there. I tried to appeal to him and asked him if it’s OK just for my son and I to come there on occasion because it’s kind of remote and certainly not well known. He refused. Kind of bummed out right now. It’s a great place. 

That’s a shame, unfortunately people ruin places like that. Sometimes it’s a stickly owner that has every right and other times it’s people that leave there trash and wreck the place that makes them like that. 

I fished on a farm pond for years but the owner decided because of liability reasons he couldn't allow anybody to fish the pond. At the time I was young and didn't understand his reason but as I got older and know more about how life works and have seen and read things about this I couldn't blame him. Funny thing is I worked for him for 3 summers while I was in high school. That is how I knew that pond had some good bass in it. Oh well, that's life. 

Its liability or selfishness. Ive let kids fish on my property and hopefully it helped them. The last 2 knocked on my door and politely asked. I told them they could, with a few rules. Catch and release only, and they could only fish if  I was home. It got to where they started coming by too much, wanting to take my boats/kayaks out, asking for fishing tackle, etc. And I know they had kept some fish secretely. I put up with it, hoping to make a difference in their lives, and they eventually quit coming by.

I think that relates somehow to your post. Dont blame the owner though. People are lawsuit crazy in our society.

There was a pay lake on a farm I use to fish about 40 years ago. The property was sold to developers and they built condos on it. Now you have to live there to use the lake, but there’s no more fishing because people were stepping on hooks.