Nine hours of commercial fishing for spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River will begin at noon on Tuesday.
The Columbia River Compact today approved the commercial fishery, which will be from the mouth of the river to Beacon Rock using 4.25-inch mesh nets.
Robin Ehlke, assistant Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the net fleet is expected to catch about 1,200 spring salmon.
That number is projected to include 900 upper-Columbia-Snake chinook and 300 from the Willamette and other lower Columbia tributaries, she said.
The commercials have an allocation of 1,222 upper Columbia-Snake spring chinook prior to an updating of the forecast in early May. The 900 fish would represent 71 percent of that allocation.
Sport fishing in the lower Columbia is closed on Tuesday and again on April 5 to prevent conflicts between the recreational and commercial fleets.
Delaying the commercial fishing period until April 5 was an option, but might necessitate landing limits to avoid exceeding the allocation.
As spring chinook continue to enter the lower Columbia, a higher percentage of upper Columbia-origin fish is expected.
Ehlke said the count at Bonneville Dam through Saturday totals 108 spring chinook. Based on the run forecast, and average timing, about 200 spring chinook would be expected at Bonneville by now, she said.
Test fishermen on Sunday in the Wahkiakum and Cowlitz county portions of the Columbia made 17 drifts and handled 42 chinook and 22 steelhead. Eighty-three percent of the chinook were hatchery-origin and 64 percent were headed for waters upstream of Bonneville Dam.
Sixty-four percent of the steelhead were hatchery fish.
A joint state hearing is scheduled on April 7 to review the sport-fishing season, which is set to close beginning April 10.
