Pikeminnow Reward Season To Open Early At Select Stations

Pikeminnow season will start early this year at three stations on the Columbia River.

Managers at the Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery today announced on Facebook that The Dalles station will open Monday, April 14, followed by the Columbia Point and Umatilla stations on the following Monday, April 21.

Most other stations will open on the traditional May 1 start of the season that pays anglers from $6 to $10 for 9-plus-inch fish.

The goal of the program isn’t to catch all of the pikeminnow on the Columbia from its mouth up to Priest Rapids Dam and the Snake from its mouth up Hells Canyon Dam but to structure the population through fishing so as to achieve lower predation rates on young salmonids.

The native species has an outsized impact on outmigrating Chinook, coho and steelhead smolts in the still-water reservoirs of the Columbia and Snake hydropower system. Specially tagged fish are worth $500.

Last season closed five days early because available funding for the May-September fishery was expected to have been distributed to participating anglers before it wrapped up for the year thanks to “above-average catches.” It also saw a record haul for one fisherman who made $164,260 for bringing in 16,150 qualifying fish.

Funding comes from the Bonneville Power Administration. The program began in 1991.

For more information, see pikeminnow.org.