Test netting finds few spring chinook in lower Columbia

State officials will test fish in the lower Columbia River again on Sunday night to sample for spring chinook and steelhead abundance.

Twelve drifts on Sunday in the Wahkiakum and Cowlitz county portions of the river came up with five spring chinook and seven steelhead.

Among the spring chinook, four were upper Columbia hatchery-origin salmon and the fifth was a wild fish headed for a lower Columbia tributary. Of the steelhead, four were hatchery origin and three were wild.

Test netting with 4 1/4-inch mesh nets is done weekly to monitor salmon and steelhead numbers in the river. When chinook numbers improve, and the ratio of steelhead to chinook is low, a commercial fishing period will be scheduled.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sampled a good catch from sportsmen over the weekend in the Portland-to-Longview stretch of the Columbia.

Oregon checked 24 boats with 60 anglers who had 11 spring chinook kept and four released. Washington’s check between I-5 and Woodland was 35 boats with 74 rods and 14 spring chinook kept.

Spring chinook fishing opens upstream of Interstate 5 on Tuesday. Boaters will be allowed to fish daily upstream as far as Rooster Rock near Corbett, Ore., while the bank will be open up to Bonneville Dam.

Sport fishing upstream of Bonneville Dam opens March 16.