Under this year's plan, the gillnet fleet is scheduled tentatively to fish for spring chinook salmon between the Hayden Island power lines and Beacon Rock on Tuesdays.

Sport fishing is closed in that stretch of the Columbia from an hour after sunset on Mondays until an hour before sunrise on Wednesdays to avoid conflict with the commercial fleet.

Test fishing occurred on Sunday with 4 1/4-inch-mesh tangle nets. In eight drifts, the test fishermen captured 11 marked spring chinook, two unmarked chinook and no steelhead.

Commercial fishing industry officials asked the states to wait until more spring chinook enter the Columbia.

The year's passage at Bonneville Dam is just 78 spring chinook through Thursday, compared to a 10-year average of 1,113, A year ago, 36 chinook had passed at this time.

Test netting is scheduled again Sunday, with the Columbia River Compact potentially meeting via an 11 a.m. conference call on Monday to authorize a commercial season.

Sport catches in the Columbia have been good for so early in the season. Washington officials sampled 1,818 anglers with 214 spring chinook kept, 32 released and one steelhead in the week ending Sunday.

An aerial survey on Saturday counted 900 boats between Bonneville Dam and the downstream end of Hayden Island. Half those boats were between the upstream end of Hayden Island and Portland International Airport.

According to rough estimates, in the first eight days of the season sportsmen have landed between 5 percent and 10 percent of their allocation of about 18,700 spring chinook.