Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $100k in bounties on fish

This one is news to me. A fisherman in Oregon turned in over 10k northern pikeminnows this summer and earned $100k in bounties. The NPM is better known as the common squawfish and is regarded as a trash fish. The name got changed a few years ago along with all the Squaw Mountains, creeks, rivers, etc. I don't know anyone who calls them NPM's. They are and always will be squawfish.
They're native to the Columbia and Snake rivers in the PNW. They're highly predatory on trout, salmon, and every other kind of game fish.

I know nothing about Oregon's bounty system. To catch 10k of them, he had to have been using nets which would be illegal here in Idaho. We need a program like this here. I don't know how many times I've spent a day fishing and caught nothing other than squawfish.

SQUAWFISH

Did you toss them back once you caught them or are they edible?

They are really easy to catch. I catch them all the time while fishing for bass and walleye. Some get pretty good size, a few pounds or more.

They are rather slimey, I recommend removing their gills and tossing them back.

Good for him. Nice payday! Wonder how he transported all those fish?

LOL
You don't catch them all at once.
It's over the season.
You keep them on ice and bring them to the check station each day that you catch fish.

Sounds like a great part-time job to me ! 🎣

They don't last long out of water. Most guys just toss them on the bank or in the boat and they die quickly. Then you can throw them back for the scavenger fish to eat. They're very bony. I don't know of anyone who eats them.

The Squawfish bounty system is in both Oregon and Washington. Every spring the game dept advertises the bounty by giving the top revenue payouts.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel/pikeminnow

Assuming these are an invasive species?

Nope. They're native to the PNW. They infest the Columbia and it's main tributary, the Snake. That covers a huge area - all of ID, much of OR and WA, bits of WY and NV, and a big chunk in Canada.
That what surprised me about the bounty. I'm surprised the OR environmentalists would allow a bounty on a native animal.

Great Payday, I think that would be a fantastic part-time job.

If a fella skinned out a few hundred or so... could be make a rug?

Matching lab and fish rugs would be cool...

We catch them up on the Clearwater, they wind up on shore.

Well considering the liberal is an invasive species in Oregon, now passed infestation level, then we should have a bounty on them too!!

I see from BluMtn's link that this is a federal program run by the Bonneville Power Admin which controls all the dams and power generation on the Columbia.

Very predatory on salmon and steelhead smolts yet they protect the walleye which is a invasive species.

Great for the retirees too. The only drawback is living in Washington or Oregon. 😁

We used to catch quite a few fishing Cascade Lake for Trout and Coho. The squaw fish will hit a Rooster Tail well. About the toughest fight I ever had was a large squaw fish on four pound Stren.

The kitties eat them.

It also applies in some of Idaho, from Lewiston to the Hells Canyon Dam. However, you don't just casually decide to run out and fish for a day in most of that. Hells Canyon is called that for a reason.