Yakama Nation opens an extra Zone 6 gillnet period Oct. 5–8

Treaty commercial gillnets get another stretch of Zone 6 this week. The Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife Committee, in a memorandum dated Sept. 30, 2026, authorized an additional fall commercial gillnet opening on all of Zone 6 of the Columbia River from 6 a.m. Monday, Oct. 5, through 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8.

Gear is gillnets with an 8-inch mesh restriction. Diver nets are prohibited, which the memo ties to sturgeon protection. Drift nets are allowed up to 800 feet, and a driftnet permit is no longer required. Standard dam and river-mouth sanctuaries stay in effect, and registered gillnet sites must be respected. The Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery sanctuary on the Washington side is reduced to a 150-foot radius around the hatchery ladder.

Salmon, sockeye, coho, steelhead, walleye, yellow perch, catfish, bass, shad, and carp caught on scaffold, hook and line, or gillnet may be sold. Sturgeon may not be sold. Incidental sturgeon may be kept for subsistence at 43 to 54 inches fork length in The Dalles and John Day pools, and 38 to 54 inches fork length in the Bonneville Pool. Platform hook-and-line stays open under the earlier order, including below Bonneville, and Sunday closures still apply. Klickitat River sales are allowed during these commercial periods; that river’s weekly schedule remains 6 a.m. Mondays to 6 p.m. Saturdays.

The committee notice is CA-611-2026-2, issued under the Yakama Nation’s law-and-order code. The fisheries office contact on the memo is the Lyle Point Field Office, (509) 365-2048. This is the Oct. 5–8 tribal gillnet add-on, not the September recreational Chinook and coho days already filed.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Yakama Nation Fisheries — Additional Fall Commercial Gillnet Opening (Sept. 30, 2026). Regulations: CA-611-2026-2 memorandum (PDF).