The 2026 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery will open May 1, offering anglers the chance to earn cash while helping protect vulnerable salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The fishery will be open daily through Sept. 30 at most locations.
Above Photo by: Gavin Ullom Significant improvements in key California salmon populations – specifically Sacramento River fall-run Chinook and Klamath River fall-run Chinook – will allow for more ocean salmon fishing opportunities this year. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that commercial ocean salmon fishing is back after being closed three straight years and that recreational ocean salmon anglers will have...
Anglers on north Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille continue to play an important role in helping Idaho Fish and Game monitor the lake’s trophy rainbow trout fishery. Through the Lake Pend Oreille Angler Science Program, anglers voluntarily record details about their fishing trips and the trout they catch.
State fisheries managers have set the initial opening for recreational spring Chinook salmon angling on the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 near Astoria, OR to the Oregon and Washington state line near Pasco, WA.
On Jan. 13, while many of Idaho’s anglers were breaking out the tape measure to check ice thicknesses and temperature gauges, one angler at Dworshak Reservoir had his tape measure out for a different reason.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is investigating the illegal introduction of a northern pike into Pine Grove Pond, a popular family fishing site in Kalispell.
Most anglers that wind up atop the Idaho state record fish leaderboards do so out of pure luck. But Robert Gregory’s story goes a little different.
For the fourth year in a row, recreational retention of white sturgeon in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam and in the Willamette River will remain closed, although catch and release angling is likely this year.
The New Year’s Day opening of the popular recreational white sturgeon fishery in the Columbia River’s Bonneville and The Dalles Dam pools was nixed by Oregon and Washington at a joint state hearing last week. However, the sturgeon fishery in the John Day pool will open as normal for anglers, Jan. 1. The change in regulations begins in 2026.
Angling in the Big Sky state has a sizable economic impact. A recent study from the University of Montana, Bureau of Business and Economic Research and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks shows that in 2024 more than 450,000 resident and nonresident anglers spent a combined $1.27 billion on fishing trips in Montana.
The 2025 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery season has been extended through Oct. 12 at select registration stations. The reward program, funded by Bonneville Power Administration, pays anglers to catch predatory northern pikeminnow, a native fish that consumes millions of juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers each year.
Angling has been closed on the lowest reach of Eagle Creek in Oregon’s Clackamas basin from Sept. 27 through Oct. 31 to give coho salmon a safe resting area amid ongoing low water flows. The closure is from SE Dowty Road downstream to the Clackamas River confluence.
Harvest and effort by recreational anglers during fall fisheries in the Columbia River last year are among the best in the past 45 years, according to a joint state staff report by states and tribes.
Aaron Goettsche is no stranger to monster Lake Trout. An avid angler, fishing rod maker, and longtime veteran on Utah’s/Wyoming's famous Flaming Gorge Reservoir – a world-renowned fishery known for producing Lake Trout over 30 pounds and occasional giants up to 60 – Aaron knows what a trophy looks like.
More summer Chinook salmon will enter the Columbia River than was previously forecasted, allowing Oregon and Washington to open the river to recreational angling from its mouth to the two-state border near Pasco, WA for eight days.
Lookingglass Creek, a tributary to northeast Oregon’s Grande Ronde River at Palmer Junction, opened for spring Chinook fishing from Wednesday, June 18 through Sunday, June 29. The open area is from the mouth upstream to the confluence of Jarboe Creek.
Riley Farden of New Plymouth was bow fishing for carp on the Snake River when he shot an arrow that not only hit its mark, it set a new state record for grass carp.
New Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife research sheds light on the link between a changing climate and ocean and ecosystem conditions; and winter steelhead survival on the Washington coast.
Although biologists downgraded their upriver spring Chinook salmon run size forecast this week, lower than expected catch and a continuing passage of the fish at Bonneville Dam is allowing Washington and Oregon to extend by two days recreational angling downstream of Bonneville Dam to June 15.
In its first in-season run size update of the 2025 spring Chinook season, the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee on Monday, May 19, raised its expectations for the upriver run by 21 percent to 155,500 fish.
The South Fork Snake River is one of the last major conservation strongholds for Idaho's state fish – the cutthroat trout -- but they are losing ground and only occupy 34% of their historical range in the lower Snake River drainage. Anglers willing to harvest rainbow trout can help change this trajectory.
Columbia River fisheries forecasters confirmed Monday that their preseason run size forecast for upriver spring Chinook salmon was likely to be accurate, allowing Oregon and Washington to reopen recreational angling in the river between Tongue Point, near Astoria, OR, and the two-state line, near Pasco, WA.
The 2025 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery opened May 1, offering anglers the chance to earn cash while helping protect vulnerable salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The fishery will be open daily through Sept. 30 at most locations.
Anglers in Washington can expect similar salmon fishing opportunities in 2025-2026 compared to last season, that also includes a strong Puget Sound pink forecast, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers announced this week.
This spring, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff deployed large nets in northeast Oregon’s Wallowa Lake to monitor fish population trends and assess the impact of lake trout on other species.
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