Three Rivers is a tributary of the Nestucca River on the northern Oregon Coast.

It’s a special place, especially for anglers, because it carries a lot of fish.

One particular fishing hole, 3 miles south of Hebo, sits just below the Cedar Creek Fish Hatchery. It’s where all the hatchery salmon return, fat, shiny and ready to spawn.

“See his tail moving?” One angler whispers to another, pointing to a shadow underwater. “There are two fish just sitting there. One up high and one right behind it.”

The land next to this fishing hole is publicly owned, so lots of people come here to fish when the season is open.

But a few yards downstream, a thick piece of wire is strung across the river indicating privately owned land. There are maybe a dozen signs scattered across the wire and on the banks reading “No Trespassing” and “All violators will be civilly prosecuted.”

The people who posted those signs are not bluffing.

In June, property owners Gary Stover, ACC Outdoors LLC, and Nicholas Stover filed suit against anglers Andrew Hunter, Anthony Collins and Kent Floro for trespassing along this stretch. They’re seeking damages of $100,000 from each defendant.

None of the parties in the lawsuit talked with OPB. But in a nutshell, plaintiffs say the anglers fished on their land. They say the deeds to their properties include the riverbed, all the way to the center line of the river.

But the anglers argue that under Oregon’s statehood laws, the river is navigable and therefore they’re within their rights to wade through the water and fish.

The navigability of some waterways changes with the seasons.

“You can walk the river up and down, as long as you’re in the water, and fish wherever you’d like,” said Wesley, an angler in Hebo who would only give his first name because of the atmosphere surrounding this lawsuit.

Wesley said two of the anglers in the Hebo lawsuit are his friends, and that things are tense with the property owners.

“We don’t need the harassment from them,” he said. “It’s like, ‘We’re not bothering you. We’re not yelling and cussing at you. Why are you cussing at us?’”

In the lawsuit, the property owners say the anglers were told they were trespassing, but refused to leave. They say angry words were exchanged and that the anglers said they’d return to fish the area again.

Disagreements like this are not uncommon in Oregon and come down to one main issue: navigability. In 1859, when Oregon became a state, all waterways used for commerce and transport became state-owned.

In effect, it meant those rivers are considered navigable, and therefore Oregonians can float up and down them without fear of being blocked by property owners.

But the smaller a river gets, the more difficult it is to know whether it is navigable. After all, people can’t just traipse through someone’s yard because there happens to be a tiny stream trickling through.

Three Rivers in Hebo is larger than a trickle, but a lot smaller than, for example, the Willamette River. Property owners and anglers can make a reasonable case either for or against navigability.

During the summer, the river is essentially a string of pools tied together by gravel bars. It would not be possible to paddle up in a canoe without getting out and dragging the boat. So property owners say it’s not navigable.

Getting out of a boat means standing on the riverbed, and that means trespassing.

The plaintiffs have gone as far as to find a history expert who is ready to testify that there’s no documented evidence of any navigable uses of Three Rivers before statehood.

During the winter, on the other hand, Three Rivers can swell to three times its summer size, and a boat can float along it without anyone having to get out and stand on the riverbed. Anglers say that means it is navigable and hence open to the public.

They also point out that while there may not have been someone writing about the specifics of trapping before statehood, doubtless someone caught beavers, fish and otters along the banks. Why wouldn’t they? There was money to be made.

Navigability can change with the seasons and other natural processes, meaning it’s a grey area that Oregonians have been arguing over for decades.

It’s an issue that even some law enforcement officers are reluctant to get involved with. Property owners in the Hebo case say they’ve asked the local sheriff and district attorney to help them get rid of trespassers, without success.

The state has designated a list of 14 officially navigable rivers. So that leaves about 100,000 miles of waterways undesignated.

Even the Deschutes River remains undesignated, and tens of thousands of anglers fish that river every year.

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In 2005, Oregon’s then Attorney General Hardy Myers issued a formal opinion to try to pin down the question of navigability. In summary it says that a waterway is navigable if it has the length, width and depth to enable boats to make successful passage.

But the full opinion stretches to 33 pages, so it is not something a person standing at the water’s edge can quickly decode to decide navigability.

Just last year, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 74. It requires the Oregon Department of State Lands to study navigability and submit its findings, plus any legislative recommendations.

It took effect on Jan. 1 of this year, but so far not much has happened.

Pushed to explain the delay, state lands issued a statement to OPB, saying it hasn’t decided yet whether additional guidance, procedures or rulemaking are necessary.

Other people OPB spoke with said it’s a no-win situation for the state. If Oregon designates a river as navigable, then some property owners will be angry. And if the state designates it as non-navigable, then some anglers will be angry.

On the Clackamas River at Barton Park, James Adkins with the Association of Northwest Steelheaders casts a spinner into the cool blue water. This river is about 100 feet across, so it’s obviously navigable and therefore open for fishing.

“In a day, if you’re really looking to fish as much water as you can,” he said, “you might hike a few miles up and down the river.”

That means anglers often find themselves in areas where land ownership is unclear.

“Unless you have your phone and an app that’s telling you, or you’ve really studied the map, you might not know,” Adkins said.

So many anglers follow a general rule of thumb: If your feet are standing on the riverbed below the high-water mark, then you’re good to go.

But on smaller rivers, that rule can result in a clash with landowners. And Adkins says things can get serious.

“Guns can get pulled. But it’s usually yelling, harassment.”

His advice: “Call the police.”

Meanwhile, Oregonians continue to wait on a fix from the Oregon Department of State Lands.

The Hebo case is scheduled to be heard in Tillamook County Court this November.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/21/fishing-oregon-rivers-outdoors-trespassing/