I hear y'all abour DNR & other regulations, but I vehemently disagree with them. It is not about protecting a waterway or the shore bank or a national trreasure, it's about $. Pay the fees & permits and you can just about take anything you want. Here we have a log that was one of the 2-3% that sank during any logging operation nationwide becaue it was so dense. It will sit there on the bottom in the mud until it rots away. Why not allow someone to get a few float bags, tow it to the boat ramp & hoist it on a truck?
Back in the 70's we used to spearfish opelousa & blue catfish under the cypress stumps in Lake Maurepas Louisiana. I remember swimming over 3' diameter cypress trees laying on the bottom that were over 70' long. These were logged in the late 1800's & early 1900's. A commercial operation in the lake at that time were recovering them. In the 90's those logs were still being pulled & sold for big $ as soon as they hit the dock. Everyone involved benefited, so I say go get the thing, just don't yap about it too much.
RD