Pacific Northwest Angler Earned $164K for Catching Pikeminnow, Shattering the Payout Record
Although 2024 saw its fair share of economic troubles, it was a banner year for one Pacific Northwest angler, who pulled in six figures during five months of fishing without ever entering a tournament. How did they do this, you ask? By catching Northern pikeminnow from the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon and Washington State, where fisheries managers are paying recreational anglers to remove as many of the predatory fish as possible.
All told, the top-earning angler of the 2024 season earned $164,260, which set a new payout record for the Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program, according to the Tri-City Herald. (The previous payout record of $119,000 was set in 2016.) All that angler had to do was catch and kill 16,150 Northern pikeminnow from the Columbia and Snake rivers between May 31 and Sept. 24.
The record-breaking payout was also fitting because 2024 was perhaps the most successful year in the reward program’s 34-year history. For the first time ever, the program had to shut down early. It was supposed to end on Sept. 30, but by Sept. 24, the program had already doled out its allotted $1.7 million in reward funds. Looking at the top 20 anglers who participated last year, every one of them earned $24,000 or more.
“Obviously it was a great season,” John Hone, a fisheries biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Tri-City Herald. “We have never had to close early.”
Hone said fishing conditions were especially good this year. Participation was also up, he explained — in part because of a new mobile app that allowed anglers to register their pikeminnow catches remotely instead of driving to the nearest station as in years past.
The Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program is a collaborative, multi-agency effort to boost native populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin by cutting down on the number of pikeminnow in the Columbia River and its largest tributary, the Snake. The program pays recreational anglers for every pikeminnow they catch that is longer than nine inches. The fishery extends on the Columbia between its mouth and Priest Rapids Dam, and on the Snake between the mouth and Hell’s Canyon Dam. There is also a sliding scale for bounties; anglers earn $6 apiece for their first 25 pikeminnow, $8 for after that, and then the payout goes up to $10 apiece for every fish caught over 200. Specially tagged pikeminnow are worth $500 a pop.
The unique program was created in 1991 as a way of mitigating the significant impact that a series of large, hydroelectric dams have had on anadromous fish runs in the region. Because although Northern pikeminnow are native to the Columbia River Basin, these fish also prey on juvenile salmon and steelhead. Which, historically speaking, wasn’t a big deal. But by rearranging the ecology of the two major rivers and their tributaries, we’ve thrown that predator-prey balance totally out of whack.
The most obvious change to the river system is a series of federally owned dams on the mainstem Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers that are now operated by the Bonneville Power Administration. These dams fundamentally changed the system by blocking off entire segments of river to anadromous fish like salmon and steelhead, and by inundating important spawning areas. The reservoirs created by the dams have also changed historic flows, turning a once-mighty river system into a series of stagnant, warming pools.
These changes have only benefitted the Northern pikeminnow, which now have a much easier time preying on salmon and steelhead in the slower, warmer reservoirs. The small, predatory fish now consume millions of out-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead each year, according to WDFW. This puts even more pressure on the region’s dwindling salmon runs.
Read Next: Breach or Die: It’s Time to Free the Lower Snake River and Save Idaho’s Wild Salmon
And since BPA profits from the power generated by the dams, the utility is now responsible for funding the pikeminnow removal program, which is administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and is implemented by WDFW along with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The program’s motto is “Save a Salmon (And Make Money Doing It).”
The program’s managers say the results so far have been promising. There have been more than 5.2 million Northern pikeminnow removed from the program area over the last 34 years. This has led to a roughly 40 percent decrease in the number of juvenile salmon preyed on by pikeminnow compared to pre-program levels, according to WDFW.
The post Pacific Northwest Angler Earned $164K for Catching Pikeminnow, Shattering the Payout Record appeared first on Outdoor Life.
