Angler collects $53,000 reward for fishing the Columbia and Snake last summer

Anglers who went after pikeminnow had a profitable spring and summer.

The Bonneville Power Administration reports that the top earner in its Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program earned $53,100 for turning in pikeminnow caught from the Columbia and Snake rivers from May through September.

Northern pikeminnow are voracious eaters, consuming millions of young salmon and steelhead every year.

This year’s top earner replaced the person who earned the most money in recent years, taking home $71,000 last year and $84,000 the year before. BPA does not make public the names of participants in the program.

The top 20 earners averaged about $25,000 each this year for five months spent fishing, according to BPA.

In total, the program paid out almost $1.2 million this year, with anglers turning in an average of about seven fish a day.

The program, funded by the BPA, rewards anglers who register daily and then turn in pikeminnow with $5 to $8 a fish, with some tagged fish earning rewards of $500 each.

One of the 19 stations to register and turn in fish is at Columbia Point Park in Richland.

This year’s reward program was responsible for removing 146,225 pikeminnow from the Columbia and Snake rivers.

For more information, go to pikeminnow.org.

This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 3:53 PM.