if we had more support from people like you and less bending over we would be in the water still.
You're absolutely right, if miners had the support of the general population, dredging probably wouldn't have been banned in the first place. But unlike other activities, mining is by its nature selfish. And that's the rub and why it's difficult to garner support from the average person.
I'll use your fishing example.
I buy a fishing rod and reel, pay my license fee, and I can go nearly anywhere during fishing season and cast my line and harvest the fish I catch as long as they meet all the regulations/size/species/etc. So If I decide to go fishing today, I can drive out to ANY public river in CA, or Ocean/Pier/Lake/Resevoir/Whatever and go fishing. If I bump into anyone else fishing, I get some additional company, maybe some friendly competition.
Now, lets compare that to mining.
I'm a greenie, I'm up in gold country on vacation, I get the itch to go pan for gold. I buy a Garrett pan, a hand shovel, maybe a hat from the local mining supplies store. I hike out to a seasonal river in Sailor Flat, CA, hike in. I find Goldwasher gorilla mining into his sluice getting the gold. You see the pan in my hand and quickly inform me that I'm on a Federal Mining Claim and that I'm not allowed to prospect on this land. Or that land or that land. But if I want to go to mylandmatters.com I can see areas around that are not under claim and I can go there.
Or maybe you're in a good mood that day and not suspicious at all of how someone found your claim wherever it is, and you offer a friendly panning lesson and let me pan your tailings and keep whatever I find.
And sure this is where Clubs like AMRA come in. You can tell the greenies who come into your shops that I can pay AMRA $200 and go panning on any of their claims (if any are even around). Or maybe direct me to one of the few public area's that are not allowed to be claimed and I can go poke around in the dirt there. Maybe there is another club in the area and for $100 I can go poke around on their clubs claims. But either way it comes across as very restrictive and regulated and how I need to be very careful about where I'm planning to pan so I'm not breaking any Federal Mining Laws. But have fun and I hope you find some gold!
Either way, I'm probably just going to go fishing instead.
Maybe it's just the experience I've gotten used to here in So Cal. My experience mining is much more similar to public fishing, because we have an entire river basin of land that's not open to claim that EVERYONE can enjoy. The biggest thing I have to worry about when I want to go mining, is am I getting up early enough to be the first person in the hole I want to dig in that day. And even then if it's taken, I just pick another spot or go prospecting for a location to plan to dig another day. And we have a pretty solid community of people on the EFSG who get out of the city and enjoy prospecting. Somewhat similar to what Kevin has up in Colorado with the facebook and the group meetups. And none of us have to pay $2500 to be apart of it.