Fishing Managers of the two-state groups that sets seasons for Columbia River fisheries met on Thursday January 29 without setting a season for spring chinook salmon. It has been a tradition for the Columbia River Compact to set the season for spring chinook at its winter meeting. But this year, however, the process has been delayed because the fish and wildlife commissions in Oregon and Washington have not agreed on a final allocation between sport and commercial fisheries.
The meeting ended without any solid results on the Chinook season because Washington supports a 65percent/35percent split between sport fishing and commercial angling. On the other hand Oregon wants a 60 percent for sport fishing and 40 percent for commercial angling.
It is informed that at the meeting Oregon and Washington fishery managers outlined general options for what a spring chinook season might look like and heard testimony on these options. Normally the Columbia River is open to spring chinook fishing from Jan.1 to Mar.1 under permanent regulations. It is found that every year Oregon and Washington amend the permanent season to provide additional fishing opportunity, if the forecast size of the run permits.
However, this year there is disagreement on the split of the quotas between two sport and commercial fishing by the two states and that led to the undecided result of the salmon Chinook season.
