‘A Solid Year’ For Columbia-Snake Pikeminnow Program

And that’s a wrap on the 2025 pikeminnow bounty season on portions of the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

“All in all, a solid year a little below our 169,000-fish average, but not bad,” stated Eric Winther, who manages the Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery Program out of Ridgefield on the Lower Columbia.

A total of at least 150,375 qualifying fish were turned in during the 2025 season.

“Not as good fishing as in 2024, but we did have better late-season catches this year,” Winther reported.

Also up, the number of participants, 12,625 compared to 12,378 in 2024, though the manager is quick to point out that 2025’s season started two weeks earlier than usual at a few select stations back in April and ran 12 days into October at a handful as well.

The fishery ran the typical May 1 through September 30 at most collection depots, which stretch from Cathlamet on the lower Lower Columbia up to Vernita Bridge in the big river’s Hanford Reach, and from Hood Park near the mouth of the Snake up to Swallows Park in Clarkston.

Winther said that the average daily catch over the season was 11.91 pikeminnow, down from 14.25 last year, while 2025’s top moneymaker made at least $146,490 for bringing in 14,573 fish.

While a final tally is still to come, as it stands that’s the second highest payout to an individual in the program’s three and a half decades, behind only last year’s $164,260.

The bounty program pays fishermen from $6 to $10 per qualifying pikeminnow, a native salmon smolt predator that has an outsized impact on outmigrating young Chinook, coho and steelhead in the still-water reservoirs of the Columbia and Snake hydropower system. Specially tagged fish are worth $500.

Winther reported that twice as many of those tagged fish were turned in this year compared to last year, 13 versus six.

“The Sport-Reward Fishery did also achieve it’s 10 to 20 percent exploitation goal, according to draft program estimates,” he added.

Meeting that goal is believed to reduce predation on young Chinook, coho, steelhead and other salmonids by up to 40 percent. Pikeminnow are just one of several species that chew on the soft-rayed fish.

“Overall, a good season,” Winther said.

This year was also at least the third time in the last six years that the season for some stations has gone into October, following on extensions in 2020 and 2021. In 2024 it actually closed early after the $1.7 million reward fund was exhausted by September 25, a week before the typical end of season.

Program participants are reminded that the deadline to file vouchers for payment is November 15.

2025 STATS
Top stations: The Dalles, 32,971 qualifying pikeminnow on the season; Washougal, 25,135
Top catch per unit effort for all stations: Cascade Locks, 29.22
Top catch per unit effort for stations with 5,000 or more fish turned in: 22.42, Ridgefield; 21.21, Washougal
Top statistical weeks: September 8-14, 9,243; June 2-8, 9,238