Fishing for dollars

One angler earned $39,620 in 2005 fishing for northern pikeminnows with a hook and line, followed by another angler who reeled in $38,084 during the five-month bounty season.

Both are veterans of Washington’s BPA-funded Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery, a 15-year-old program that pays anglers to catch as many pikeminnows as possible on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Anglers earned $4 each for the first 100 northern pikeminnows they caught; $5 each for 101 to 400 pikeminnows; and $8 each for any additional pikeminnows above 400.

More than 5,000 anglers took part in this year’s fishery, catching a total of 240,955 pikeminnows and earning a total of $1.5 million. This year’s total catch was second only to last year’s record harvest of 267,215 fish.

This year’s top money-earner caught 4,740 pikeminnows – including six tagged fish that earned up to $500 apiece. The average angler in this fishery catches six to seven fish per day, program officials said, but as with salmon or steelhead anglers, the top 5 percent catches 80 percent of the fish.