Pikeminnows a cash crop for anglers

Once again, it’s time to fish for fame, and especially for fortune.

The 2007 Pikeminnow Sport Reward Season opens May 14 on the Columbia from the mouth to the Tri-Cities and on the Snake from the mouth to Lewiston.

Last year, David Vasilchuk of Vancouver took the program seriously, earning a whopping $48,348 during the season. That’s up from a record $39,620 earned by another angler in 2005.

During the season, which is scheduled to end Sept. 30, anglers who register each day they go fishing can earn from $4 up to $8 a fish for pikeminnows longer than 9 inches that are caught and turned in to reward stations.

The Bonneville Power Administration funds the reward program to reduce the number of 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.

Last year the program paid a total of $1.57 million to 1,470 anglers who turned in a total of 232,883 pikeminnows (down from 240,955 in 2005).

Participating anglers averaged seven pikeminnows a day last year. As with salmon or steelhead anglers, the top 5 percent catches 80 percent of the fish, program officials said.

Anglers get bonuses of up to $500 for each pikeminnow they turn in that has been tagged by researchers.