$$$$$$$$

[nastygunz]

http://www.pikeminnow.org

[Hawks Feather]

Well we know where Jim will be next year.  Catching fish and making money.

Jerry

[Coulter]

Holy crap...there's some money to be made there!

[Okanagan]

Yep, there is money in catching pike minnows (formerly called squawfish in pre-PC days).  Some of my relatives make some side money at this.  To make big money you need to go at it with serious time and skill.  The top fisherman last year grossed nearly 120K in a May to Sept season, not bad.  The second man only made half of that but 19 of the top 20 fishermen made more than 20K.  To make enough money to cover gas and licenses is not hard.  They are fun to catch IMO though I've only caught them as incidental to fishing for lake bass and trout and river salmon.  They will hit a fly on a fly rod and will hit spoons and spinners but bait has been best IME.   They fight as well as a bass but are considered a trash fish kind of like carp.  My memory of taste is just a so so bland white meat fish full of bones.    Most people don't eat them.  I tried one.   

I'd guess that the cost of the program to pay sport fishermen to kill them is cheaper than any big government trapping/killing program.

I've always been curious why they only pay for fish over 9" long.  The little ones will grow up and we might as well kill them before they get big enough to eat salmon fry.   

[nastygunz]

 I think the 9 inch thing is because they are a native species not invasive so they don't want to eradicate them just control them.  They said the reason their population has exploded  was because of some big dams that were put up and the people that own the dams actually pay for the bounty program. Pretty interesting stuff.  Theyd never make it in my home state, home of the Vermont fur bearing alligator trout, 

[FinsnFur]

I'm going to have to get a luggage rack on the Yak