Walleye Fisherman Catches a Pending World-Record Pikeminnow — the Native Fish That Has a Bounty On Its Head

Invoice Saunders is a waterfowl name maker from Kennewick, Washington. However he says his true ardour today is chasing trophy walleyes on the Columbia and Snake Rivers close to his dwelling. On April 16, he and his fishing associate, Brent Davis, have been out casting swimbaits once they landed an excellent fish close to the confluence of the 2 rivers.

“It hit like a walleye,” Saunders tells Outside Life. “I didn’t assume it was all that huge – eight or 9 kilos.”

Nevertheless, after Davis acquired the fish within the internet, they have been shocked once they gave it a better look. The fish had the identical gold coloration as a walleye, but it surely didn’t have the identical sharp tooth. Fairly rapidly they realized it was a pikeminnow — the most important they’d seen, and presumably one of many greatest ever caught by an angler. 

“At first I used to be just a little embarrassed,” says Saunders, who’d caught a 12-pound walleye in the identical space only a couple days prior. “I actually didn’t care [about having a record verified.] However my spouse and Brent satisfied me. ‘You may by no means have a possibility like this once more,’ they mentioned. Me? I checked out it form of like driving a moped. Oh, they’re enjoyable all proper, till your mates see you on one.”

Finally, Saunders gave in. After getting off the water, he and Davis discovered not one however two licensed scales to formally weigh the fish. 

“Nobody wished to place it on their scale [at first],” he says. “Cross contamination or no matter.” 

They acquired an official weight of 8.6 kilos, together with the required witness signatures. The next day, Saunders met with biologists from the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife, who verified the species and inspected the fish. They measured it at 25.25 inches in size and estimated the pikeminnow to be round 19 years outdated.

“These guys have been northern pikeminnow checkers (for the division),” says Saunders, who donated his fish to WDFW to allow them to mount it for academic functions. “They have been nice. Simply superior. And I walked out of there extremely educated about these pikeminnow.” 

Saunders’ fish has already been declared a new state record by WDFW. He additionally submitted a world-record software to the Worldwide Sport Fish Affiliation. Though that software is pending, his fish ought to change the current world record, a 7 pound 14 ounce fish caught from the Snake River in 2008. 

Northern pikeminnow (previously referred to as squawfish) have the uncommon distinction of being a local species with a bounty on their heads. Since 1991, the Bonneville Energy Administration has been paying leisure anglers to catch and kill pikeminnows by the Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program. This system was established as a result of pikeminnow feed closely on child salmon and steelhead, two different native species which have lengthy been struggling within the Columbia and Snake River Basins. (These runs are all a shadow of their former selves, and 7 shares at the moment are listed as both threatened or endangered underneath the Endangered Species Act.)

Learn Subsequent: Pacific Northwest Angler Earned $164K for Catching Pikeminnow, Shattering the Payout Record

The BPA’s hydroelectric dams are one of the main reasons why these fish runs are nonetheless struggling. The massive concrete obstacles make it more durable for grownup fish to run upriver to spawn, whereas smolts wrestle to navigate the slackwater reservoirs the dams have created. In gentle of those issues, the BPA is now legally required to mitigate the impacts of its dams and assist fund initiatives just like the pikeminnow program. 

Through the years, the sport-reward program has paid thousands and thousands of {dollars} to collaborating fishermen on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. In 2024 alone, it doled out $1.7 million. That very same 12 months, the top-earning angler earned a record payout of $164,200 for catching and killing 16,150 pikeminnow.