The 2024 northern pikeminnow bounty season on the Columbia and Snake rivers opened May 1, with decent money to be made.
Last year the top angler in the program earned $107,800 for the fish they caught from May to September. And the runner-up made about $99,000.
“Catch cash, save salmon,” says the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program. Pikeminnow are voracious eaters, feeding on young salmon and steelhead in the two rivers in Washington and Oregon.
But you don’t have to fish all season to earn cash. You just have to sign up in the reward program each day you want to fish for northern pikeminnow and then turn in your catch at one of 22 stations.
This year the first 25 northern pikeminnow you catch are worth $6.
After that you can earn $8 each until you catch 200. Any fish above that number can be turned in for $10 each.
In addition, specially tagged northern pikeminnow in the program are worth $500 each or $200 if a tag loss is verified.
Daily registration is required, but anglers can do it on their phone with the “Pikeminnow Registration” app released last year. When they register, they pick the station where they will turn in their pikeminnow.
Date-stamped registration forms are also available at boxes at stations or from staff there during hours they are open.
The fish need to be turned into the preselected station within 24 hours of registration to be eligible for the bounty program. Vouchers need to be mailed in for payment within 30 days of the end of each year’s season.
Northern pikeminnow must be 9 inches or longer to be eligible for a reward.
Where to fish for pikeminnow
In areas near the Tri-Cities, May and June are usually the months when the most pikeminnow are caught, and near the mouth of the Yakima River is one of the best places to catch them.
The reward program posts maps showing good areas historically to catch pikeminnow near each station.
Northern pikeminnow congregate in rocky areas with fast currents near dams, islands, stream mouths, points, eddies, rows of pilings, and ledges or bars in the river. Most fish are caught in 7 to 25 feet of water.
Sunrise, sunset and night are generally the best fishing times and the pikeminnow may be in shallower water then.
The rewards program posts information online on how to fish with bait, grubs and lures for pikeminnow at pikeminnow.org/resources/how-to.
Saving Snake, Columbia salmon
If you catch and turn in northern pikeminnow, you will not only be earning money but helping the salmon and steelhead populations.
Northern pikeminnow eat millions of young salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake river systems each year.
The goal of the rewards program is not to eliminate the northern pikeminnow, which is a native species, but to reduce the number of large pikeminnow that eat the most young salmon and steelhead juveniles making their way to the ocean.
Since the rewards program started in 1991, more than 5.4 million northern pikeminnow have been caught, and pikeminnow predation on juvenile salmon has been reduced up to 40%.