Go fishing-Make money!

pwd72s · 05-11-2008, 10:53 AM

It's bounty time for pikeminnow
Sunday, May 11, 2008
RICH LANDERS THE (SPOKANE)
The Oregonian
The 2008 pikeminnow sport reward season started Monday and will run through Sept. 28 on the Columbia River from the mouth to the Tri-Cities and on the Snake River from the mouth to Lewiston, Idaho.

Anglers who register can earn from $4 to $8 a fish for northern pikeminnow longer than nine inches that are caught and turned in to reward stations.

Since 1991, more than 3.2 million northern pikeminnow have been removed from the Snake and Columbia rivers through the sport reward program. Northern pikeminnow predation on juvenile salmon in 2007 was cut by an estimated 37 percent.

Serious anglers have made the pikeminnow a cash crop.

In 2006, David Vasilchuk of Vancouver earned a record $48,348 during the five-month program season. Vasilchuk was the high earner again in 2007, catching 5,591 fish for $47,364 in rewards.

Nikolay Zaremskiy of Portland caught the most pikeminnow in 2007, turning in 5,778 fish and collecting $46,400.

Edward Williams of Spokane was the fourth-highest earner in the 2007 reward program, landing 3,566 fish and collecting $27,728.

The payment system rewards anglers who catch more fish by increasing the bounty from $4 for the first 100 pikeminnow ranging to $8 for every fish in excess of 400. Anglers who catch tagged pikeminnow can earn bonuses of $500.

Vasilchuk caught eight tagged fish to Zaremskiy's three. Williams caught one tagged fish.

The Bonneville Power Administration funds the reward program to reduce the native predators, which have been given an unnatural advantage for eating endangered salmon and steelhead smolts as they try to migrate downstream through the reservoirs created by dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

Catches have declined in the two years since the record of 240,955 pikeminnow in 2005.

Boyer Park on the Snake River was the tops among the 17 check stations for collecting pikeminnow from anglers last year, producing more than 32,000 fish.

Participating anglers average about seven pikeminnow a day. But the averages don't tell the whole story, said Eric Winther, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife project leader for the Columbia-Snake predator control program.

Although 1,177 anglers received pay vouchers in 2007, the program registered 3,814 anglers who spent 26,924 angler days fishing for pikeminnow.

"With salmon or steelhead fishing, you often hear that 10 percent of the anglers get 80 percent of the fish," Winther said. "In the case of pikeminnow, we have the hard numbers to show that 8 percent get 75 percent of the fish."

(edit) Apologies & my goof. Please move this to off topic

©2008 The Oregonian