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August Gillnet Seasons Adopted by Staff The Columbian, July 30, 2009

ASTORIA - Washington and Oregon officials adopted on Wednesday eight nights of gillnetting for salmon and sturgeon in the lower Columbia River.

The commercial fleet will fish from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday, 7 p.m. Aug. 6 to 7 a.m. Aug. 7 and 7 p.m. Aug. 9 to 7 a.m. Aug. 10 from the mouth of the Columbia upstream to Beacon Rock. The netters will move upstream and fish from the Kalama River mouth to Beacon Rock from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 18-19, 20-21 and 23-24. The fleet will move farther upstream and fish from the mouth of the Lewis River to Beacon Rock from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Aug. 25-26 and 27-28.

The commercials are projected to land 3,000 chinook and 1,200 sturgeon during the Aug. 4-7 period, 2,300 chinook and 750 sturgeon on Aug. 9 and 14,100 chinook and 150 sturgeon during Aug. 18-28.

Fall commercial and sport fishing in the lower Columbia is negotiated between the states and fishing interests each March and April as part of the ocean salmon planning process.

The actions on Wednesday by the Columbia River Compact assigned dates to a fishing regime agreed upon months ago.

After Aug. 28, the nets will be off the lower Columbia until Sept. 20 to target the tail end of the fall chinook run. Netting targeting on coho are expected to begin in late September and continue into October.

Commercial coho season will be downstream of the Lewis River and during daylight hours.

State and tribal biologists are predicting a run of 532,900 fall chinook and 703,100 coho salmon will enter the Columbia River between August and December.

Sportsmen are expected to cath 10,700 chinook and 119,100 coho at Buoy 10, 15,100 chinook and 1,900 coho between Tongue Point in Oregon and Bonneville Dam and 1,900 chinook between Bonneville Dam and the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco.