OLYMPIA — Yet again, Washington and Oregon are at odds how to split the catch of the Columbia River’s highly prized spring chinook salmon between sportsmen and gillnetters.

Saturday, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission postponed for a month adopting a spring salmon allocation policy, with several members blasting Oregon for deviating on Friday from a compromise deal reached in November.

Spring chinook are the glory fish of the Columbia, fueling a huge sport fishery in March and April resulting in thousands of anglers a day on the river. Spring salmon also fetch the netters fleet $10 a pound when caught early in the run.

The two states have had their allocation differences for several years. Washington tends to favor shifting more of the harvest to sportsmen, while Oregon opts to remain closer to the status quo.

Early in 2008, the states appointed a “visioning committee” of sport and commercial representatives to try to reach a consensus on spring chinook. That process failed.

So in the fall, three commission members from each state formed the Columbia River Fish Working Group and reached an agreement in November.

That pact called for a base allocation of 65 percent sport and 35 percent commercial, with a 45-day sport season in March and April in the lower Columbia as the top priority.

But on Friday, the full Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-3 to shift the base allocation 10 percent, to 55 percent sport-45 percent commercial.

“Failing twice at such an important issue leaves a very bad taste in my mouth,’’ said Conrad Mahnken, a Washington commission member from Bainbridge Island. “It makes both commissions not look very good in the eyes of the public.’’

Mahnken said Washington could adopt a 75 percent sport-25 percent allocation as a “push back” position, but agreed more analysis and discussion with Oregon is a better course of action.

The working group’s recommendation includes a complicated matrix weighing the relative strengths of the Willamette and upper Columbia spring chinook runs, then allocating a higher percentage to the commercials during big runs and a smaller percentage during lean years.

With the big 2009 forecast of 298,900 upper Columbia chinook, Oregon’s shift in the base sharing would result in a 50-50 split of the kill of wild spring chinook permitted under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is that sharing of those wild fish that determines the overall harvest of hatchery-origin chinook.

In 2007, the states agreed on a 57 percent sport share. In 2008, they compromised on a 61 percent sport share.

David Goodroe, director of the Lower Columbia Economic Development Council, said 60 families in Wahkiakum County depend on commercial fishing, making it the county’s fourth largest employer.

Dan Grogan of Vancouver, owner of two Portland-area sporting goods stores, countered that his 96 employees will be out of a job if 2009 is as tough as 2008.

“We can’t have a year like last year and survive,” Grogan said. “I can’t move to Alaska. I find it disturbing Oregon finds part-time commercial jobs more important than our jobs.”

The Washington commission directed the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to run a computer model of the 2009 season using Oregon’s proposed allocation regime, seeing how many days of sport fishing it would permit.

That information is to be ready for a Washington commission conference call scheduled for Friday.

Washington commission members also hinted they might reconsider the 50-50 sport-commercial sharing of summer chinook in the lower Columbia depending on Oregon’s position on spring chinook.

Summer chinook originate only from streams in Eastern Washington, giving the Washington panel a negotiating chip.

The Washington commission will meet Jan. 9-10 in Olympia to adopt spring and summer chinook policies.