Spring chinook salmon angling will reopen Friday through Sunday in the lower Columbia River, Washington and Oregon fishery officials decided today.
Sportsmen are projected to handle about 500 chinook, including about 275 upper Columbia-Snake spring chinook during the three days.
The catch would bring the spring season total to about 8,300 upper Columbia-Snake chinook, or 81 percent of the allocation for sportsmen downstream of Bonneville Dam, said biologist John North of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Spring salmon fishing closed initially on April 8, then reopened last weekend for three days.
Open water will be from a line between Tongue Point in Oregon and Rocky Point in Washington upstream to Beacon Rock for boaters and upstream to Bonneville Dam for bank rods.
Fishing for hatchery steelhead and hatchery jack chinook is open daily in the Columbia River downstream of Interstate 5.
Randy Woolsey of the bistate Columbia River Recreational Advisory Group asked the states to reopen fishing on Thursday.
Angling in the lower Willamette has been poor and getting worse, Woolsey said, calling the lower Columbia the best option for sportsmen.
“Guys are really itching to participate in this fishery,’’ Woolsey said.
State, federal and tribal biologists on Monday downgraded the upper Columba-Snake forecast from the original 188,800 to 180,000.
The sanctuary around the mouth of the Lewis River, adopted for last weekend, was not adopted for this weekend.
Sport fishing between Bonneville Dam and the Washington-Oregon boundary east of Umatilla, Ore. will stay closed.
Ron Roler, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said anglers in the mid-Columbia reservoirs have exceeded their allocation by 7 percent.
State officials are likely to meet again Tuesday.
Guy Norman, regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said he is interested to see if enough spring chinook remain on the allocation to open sport fishing again for Memorial Day weekend and stay open until the start of summer chinook season on June 16.
Commercial — The lower Columbia commercial fleet has landed 1,723 upper Columbia-Snake spring chinook, which is 59 percent of its allocation.
The states approved netting with 8-inch-minimum mesh from 7 p.m. Tuesday until 7 a.m. Wednesday upstream to Beacon Rock.
Roler said the commercials are expected to catch about 650 upper Columbia-Snake chinook, bringing the net fleet to 81 percent of its allocation.
The commercials will use 8-inch-minimum mesh instead of 4.25-inch tangle nets due to the building number of shad in the lower Columbia.
