PROPOSED LAKE WYLIE INTERSTATE AGREEMENT

I have received a courtesy copy of a letter from State Representative Walton McLeod to SC Department of Natural Resources Director John E. Frampton, dated September 6, 2007.

Excerpts are as follows:  Currently South Carolina and Georgia, have an agreement regarding the Savannah River, Tugaloo River, Chattoga River, and the lakes which constitute the boundary line between the two states.  This agreement authorizes a South Carolina fishing license to be valid, and authorizes a Georgia fishing license to be valid from shore to shore of the Savannah River and its tributaries and dependent lakes which form the boundary line between the two states. These lakes include Lake Thurmond, Lake Russell, and Lake Hartwell. More specifically, a fishing license from either South Carolina or Georgia is valid from shore to shore of any of these water bodies.

The underlying facts at Lake Wylie are similar but different, because the entire lake is not dissected by the state line separating North Carolina and South Carolina. The upper extremity of Lake Wylie is totally within North Carolina, and the lower extremity of Lake Wylie is totally within South Carolina. Nonetheless, the major portion of Lake Wylie is dissected by the state line, and is therefore an interstate waterway, in some manner that the Chattoga River, Tugaloo River, the Savannah River, and its dependent lakes are dissected by the state line and are interstate waterways.

Representative McLeod goes on to state that it seems to him, and his constituents, that the State of North Carolina and the State of South Carolina, in an effort to accommodate the members of the members of the recreational fishing public, have a duty to seek and finalize an agreement whereby a fishing license issued by either state would be valid on all of the waters of Lake Wylie. This would authorize shore to shore fishing in all of the waters of the entire Lake Wylie by a person possessing either a North Carolina fishing license or a South Carolina fishing license.

Please review this request for a joint North Carolina - South Carolina fishing agreement which would authorize a fishing license from either state to be utilized while fishing in any of the waters of Lake Wylie.

/s/Walton J. McLeod

State Representative 

The above is for information purposes, and written with permission from Representative McLeod.

All interested persons should contact their State Fisheries Departments to voice their opinion on this subject. Currently if you fish Lake Wylie you are required to have a fishing license from both states in your possession, unlike Georgia and South Carolina Interstate Waters.

SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES