Anglers Are Cashing In On Bounty Aimed At Protecting Salmon Bpa Makes Program Even More Lucrative With Payoff Increase

Darrell Schafer took an incentive to catch squawfish all the way to the bank last year.

The Yakima angler netted $9,131 from a $3 bounty on squawfish plus various contests and drawings offered to entice anglers into killing northern squawfish in portions of the Columbia River drainage.

This year, the Bonneville Power Administration, is making the program even more lucrative. Once an angler turns in 100 squawfish, the bounty will increase to $4 for each fish over 11 inches long. At 400 fish, the reward will increase to $5 a fish.

Kenyon Schur of Kennewick caught 2,300 squawfish last year, but bumped his earnings to a whopping $13,000 after winning a $5,000 drawing bonus.

With the blessing of fish agencies from Washington and Oregeon, the Bonneville Power Administration has funded the squawfish program is part of an effort to get more young salmon and steelhead down the Columbia and Snake rivers to the ocean.

Research has shown that squawfish eat millions of young salmon and steelhead each year. Some of these fish are listed as endangered species. The theory is that reducing the predators will help salmon runs rebound.

In 1994, about 41,000 anglers caught more than 129,000 squawfish, the best catch rate since the effort began in 1991. Paid anglers using nets and other methods caught another 154,647 squawfish from the lower Columbia upstream to Priest Rapids Dam and up the Snake to the Clarkston area.

Fish biologists in Washington and Oregon are reluctant for political reasons to criticize the squawfish bounty program.

One, who asked to remain anonymous, called it “a Band-Aid for a cancer … It’s not the solution to the problem, but at $5 million a year, it might be one of the cheapest Band-Aids to the mess the dams have made of the rivers.”

More recently, biologists have turned their concerns from that native status of squawfish to offering tips on how to catch them.

The most productive anglers last year reaped wealth from two common tactics: fishing at night, and using chicken livers for bait.

“The big fish - the legal fish specifically - will move up into the shallows in the evening and throughout the night,” said Eric Winther, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department biologist in Vancouver. “In the day, the smaller fish are up close.”

Winther said there’s a trick to using chicken liver as bait. Cut the livers into bait-size pieces and dry them in the sun just until it forms a skin tough enough to keep it on the hook, he said.

Casting baited plastic grubs, leadhead jigs, plugs and spinners all work better than letting the bait sit on the bottom.

“It’s a predator fish and it seems to help if you can keep your bait moving,” Winther said.

Rapala Rattin’ Rap, Rapala Shad Rap and a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap are among the top lures.

“Try to get a color that imitates a minnow - silver with a black top, silver with a blue top or rainbow trout finish,” Winther said.

The best angling for squawfish tends to be in early June, when the fish are congregated for spawning and ambushing salmon and steelhead smolts heading downstream. Success declines markedly after July 15.

“The best thing about the spawning period is the fish bunch up,” he said. “What you’ll have generally is a female and some number of males balled up in nearshore areas as shallow as 2 feet. They’re not going to hold there in the middle of the day, but they’re certainly there in the evenings.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COLUMBIA AND SNAKE RIVER SQUAWFISH CHECK STATIONS Anglers participating in the Bonneville Power Administrations squawfish reward program must register at check stations between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. The stations shown below are scheduled to be open daily through Sept. 10.

1. Cathlamet Marina 2. Kalama Marina 3. M. James Gleason boat ramp 4. Washougal boat ramp/Port of Camas 5. The Fishery at Covert’s Landing 6. Hamilton Island 7. Bingen Marina 8. The Dalles boat ramp 9. Giles French boat ramp 10. Columbia Point Park 11. Vernita Bridge rest area 12. Hood Park 13. Greenbelt boat ramp

Request a free squawfish angling starter kit, complete with instructions and a free lure, by calling the Bonneville Power Administration’s document request hotline, (800) 622-4520. To get more information and weekly updates on the squawfish reward program, call (800) 858-9015.