Commercial fishing for spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River will be delayed until April 9 with the net fleet then likely to be limited to seven to nine fish per vessel.
The Columbia River Compact decided on Monday not to have a commercial tangle-net fishery on Tuesday in order to allow more hatchery-origin spring chinook to enter the river. Sport fishing remains closed, as scheduled, on Tuesday.
Test netting in the Cowlitz and Wahkiakum county portions of the lower Columbia on Sunday caught 25 chinook and nine steelhead for 16 drifts.
State biologists proposed a tangle-net fishery from 1:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. They predicted a catch of about 1,200 chinook.
Read the full story at The Columbian>>