$70K a Year Fishing, How to Make a Living Doing What You Love
Do you pride yourself on your talent for fishing? Feeling triumphant as you fill a stringer with trout when others are coming up empty-handed?
Or maybe catching the biggest bass in the overcrowded lake, leaving other bait-throwers in awe?
It’s time to take it to another level. Have you considered making a career out of it and getting paid to fish all day long?
Not only that tournaments are not necessary because there’s actually an opportunity of becoming a professional fish hunter and earning big money!
Last year one angler earned close to seventy thousand dollars doing this recreationally. Doesn’t seem too farfetched right now, does it?
Cash In Northern Pikeminnows
An angler, who opted to remain anonymous, earned an impressive $69,230 from May 1, 2022 to September 3, 2022 simply by catching pikeminnows in the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
This is all part of an intensive conservation project initiated back in 1991 to reduce the presence of a predatory fish which has been proven to negatively impact salmon and steelhead populations two species that create much of the recreational angling industry.
The Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program is handled by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC), Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; their funding supplied by the Bonneville Power Administration.
For every 9-inch or longer pikeminnow caught, an angler can win between $6-$10 each – with extra incentive arising from hundreds of tagged fish with values ranging from $200-$500.
In total, 1,200 people registered for the program in 2022 and removed a combined 140 000 pikeminnows from local rivers.
However, our mystery angler managed to catch nearly 7 000 fish alone within five months – signifying they may have committed themselves entirely to this activity!
It appears that location is the key to success for pikeminnow fishing. The fish are often found in groups and can be unpredictable in their movements.
Although it requires skill and determination to stay on top of them, catching them is quite simple: they will take any kind of bait such as a spoon, spinner, streamer or jerkbait; worms and chicken liver chunks to cheese.
To get the most out of this program, the PSMFC has created instructional videos so you can earn more money while helping reduce the number of pikeminnows.
Big Money Busting Brown Trout
If trout fishing is more your style, the “trouty” Colorado River near the Glen Canyon Dam may be of interest.
Cold-water inflow from Lake Powell above the dam has established a blue-ribbon fishery of rainbow trout, who over time have been joined by brown trout.
Growing larger and having a more predatory nature, their numbers must be kept in check for fear of them migrating downriver and threatening native species like the humpback chub.
Colorado River near the Glen Canyon Dam
To manage this, anglers can make money found chasing these brown trout.
Anglers are presented with a fantastic financial opportunity with this incentivized harvest program: $25 to $33 for brown trout 6 inches or more caught between Glen Canyon Dam and the Paria River, plus an additional $50 bonus for every three fish each month.
An even better reward awaits if you manage to catch one of the trout which has been implanted with a PIT tag you’ll receive a staggering $300!
It’s easy to see why this could prove incredibly lucrative if you reel in forty fish every month and add two bonus PIT tagged trout into the mix.
You’d be making an impressive thirty thousand dollars annually far better than working night shifts at Wendy’s!
In truth, there are a number of bounty fishing opportunities in the U.S., such as on Washington’s Lake Roosevelt, where you can make $10 for each northern pike.
At one point, Idaho’s South Fork of the Snake River had an initiative similar to Arizona’s rainbow trout bounty.
That being said, if you’re hoping to cash-in bigtime then taking aim at pikeminnows is the way to go. If I lived close to the Columbia River, I’d definitely give it a whirl just for some extra pockets money or to finance my fishing lure addiction.
Sources: Fieldstream
