Washington and Oregon officials have approved 14 hours of commercial fishing for spring chinook salmon Tuesday in the lower Columbia River.
The Columbia River Compact on Monday adopted a fishery from 4 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday from Beacon Rock downstream to the ocean. Tangle nets with 4.25-inch-maximum mesh are required.
The fleet is projected to catch about 900 chinook, said Robin Ehlke, assistant Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
About 800 of the chinook would be upper Columbia-Snake origin. The projected harvest would bring the commercials to 89 percent of their allocation.
Sport fishing in the lower Columbia resumes Saturday for hatchery-origin chinook, hatchery steelhead and shad.
