Boat managers recommend no motor ban on Chetco River

Oregon boating managers have recommended against banning motors on a 10-mile stretch of the Chetco River, calling it an “over-reaching measure” to settle conflicts between boat and bank anglers during the river’s popular winter steelhead season.

A staff report recommends that the Oregon State Marine Board reject the motor ban petition on driftboats because there is no justification to a motor ban based on safety, congestion or property-rights concerns.

Some bank anglers petitioned the Marine Board for the ban to keep driftboats using small outboard motors for repeatedly fishing through holes on a popular stretch of the river during the winter steelhead season.

Opponents said motor bans exist throughout the remaining 46 miles of the Chetco, and the staff recommendation agrees with opponents labeling the ban as an improper solution to a clash in angling styles.

“The proposed prohibition may be an overreaching measure in response to what appears to be a three-month fishing style conflict,” the report states. “The river is more crowded than in the past and the conditions that the petitioners seek — a quiet, peaceful, uncrowded experience — is not realistic as long as the fishing on the river is productive and promoted.”

The Marine Board will decide the issue on October 26 in a meeting that will be held in either Newport or Lincoln City.

The staff petition also noted an opinion by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist that motors on driftboats propose no biological threat to wild steelhead during the December through March fishery.