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The advisory board overseeing the Kenai River is considering whether to recommend preserving a popular stretch of the lower river for drift fishing, or dragging.

The Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board's River Use Committee introduced a resolution that would actively encourage anglers to drift Eagle Rock, a stretch of river between miles 12 and 10.5.

Jack Sinclair, the Kenai area superintendent for the Division of State Parks and Outdoor Recreation, said that as proposed, signs would be located upriver of the section advising anglers to drift fish during the king salmon season.

Drifting, or dragging, is a method used by boaters where anglers float at the speed of the current, perpendicular to the banks, dragging their lines behind them. Powerboats will use their motors to move back and forth across the channel.

Sinclair explained that conflicts have arisen where back trollers, who fish by slowly backing down river under power with their lines running down stream from them, have trouble fishing the same areas, particularly when the river gets crowded.

While back trolling has grown in popularity over the years, he said anglers who prefer to drift have pushed back to maintain that certain areas be reserved for them.

If approved by both the board and the Department of Natural Resources, the measure would have no teeth, and the signs would ultimately serve more as a polite suggestion than anything else.

"There's no enforcement to follow this," Sinclair said. "It's just a way of letting people know."

He admitted that signs won't solve the problem either, and education will play an important role.

Sinclair pointed to a few benefits from a voluntary route though, and said that letting the situation continue might result in more stringent regulations down the road.

That's an option that he doubted most would want to see.

He also said that fishing methods have evolved over the years.

Dictating, or even encouraging one fishing method over another is something the agency has steered away from historically, Sinclair explained. In this case they saw an issue.

"The one thing that is causing problems is the social problem developing, and that should interest us," he said. "If we take away the fishing part of the equation and say that we have problems with dissimilar fishing methods colliding, then perhaps it is part of our job."

The board will hold their next regularly scheduled meeting on April 8 at The Donald E. Gilman River Center on Funny River Road.

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com