Access has been discussed here for as long (and longer) than I've been here i.e. 6 years.
It gets thrown from pillar to post, and it seems to me from my brief skimming across the surface of what's been written (no offence to anyone here) that we are no further forward today.
My own view is that if you want to canoe on a body of water, then common sense must prevail. This is to say that if you need to cross some property to get to said body of water, and this is likely to cause offence or trespass, than don't do it. There will be another body of water somewhere not far away that you can canoe on without anyone taking offence, so use that instead.
Ask yourself if the land you want to cross belonged to you, would you want people traipsing across it ? If the answer is no, why would you do it on somebody else's land?
Whatever you do, and whatever agreements are in place to allow or stop you canoeing, you're always going to upset someone. Get used to it, it's the nature of the beast.
As for water belonging to someone, what a load of tosh. Water comes from the sky and belongs to us all.
Just go canoeing and try not to tread on anyones toes.

