Compact Approves Last Of Mainstem Commercial Fishing, Tribal Sales Until Year End
The Columbia River Compact on Oct. 23 approved what are likely to be its final Columbia River mainstem commercial fishing decisions this year, approving the tribal sale of salmon and other fishes caught with hoop and dip nets and with hook and line through the end of the year, and setting lower river non-tribal gill-net fisheries that stretch through today.



While strong runs of fall chinook and coho salmon are tailing off greatly, and fishing interest too, harvest possibility remains.



“This is an opportunity that is well deserved” for commercial fishers wanting to stretch what has been a strong late summer-fall fishing season on the mainstem Columbia, said John North, who represented the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department’s interim director, Curt Melcher, on the Columbia River Compact. Joining North on the panel, which sets mainstem commercial fisheries, was Guy Norman, who represented Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Phil Anderson.



The Compact set five 12-hour non-tribal fisheries for this week -- Oct. 27-31 – with 6-inch maximum net mesh size in the lower river from, roughly, the mouth of the Lewis River near Woodland, Wash., down to the mouth of the .... http://www.cbbulletin.com/432546.aspx