Opening set for commercial fishermen

Commercial fishing of fall chinook for both Treaty and non-treaty gillnetters opens over the next couple of weeks.

The two-state Columbia River Compact at its meeting in Richfield on Aug. 14 approved 9 hours of commercial gillnetting each night August 20, 23 and 26 from Warrior Rock near St. Helens to Bonneville Dam (zones 4 and 5).

Treaty commercial gillnetters begin fishing in zone 6 upstream of Bonneville Dam Aug. 27. They will fish 3-1/2 days, Aug. 27 at 6 am to Aug. 30, 6 pm, and 4-1/2 days 6 am, Sept. 3 to 6 pm Sept. 7.

The fall chinook run forecasted this year by the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee is 375,510 fish, 79 percent of the 2017 actual return of 476,463 fish and 50 percent of the 10-year (2008 – 2017) average of 753,350 fish, according to the Compact’s Aug. 14 Fall Fact Sheet No. 2 at https://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/OSCRP/CRM/FS/18/18_08_14ff2.pdf.