PORTLAND – The Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program just got a little more lucrative for anglers who catch pikeminnow in September, thanks to a new weekly drawing that will distribute five weekly prizes worth $2,000 each.

“Adult pikeminnow love to eat juvenile salmon, so by providing incentives to anglers who catch pikeminnow, we are boosting salmon survival,” said Russell Porter, senior program manager for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. “With an unusually cold spring that got the season off to a late start – and given feedback from anglers who say high gasoline prices are cutting into the regular pikeminnow incentives – it made sense to provide some additional motivation to fishermen as we near the end of the sport reward season.”

Porter added that there are plenty of pikeminnow “waiting to be caught” at this time of the season.

Since 1991, more than 3.2 million northern pikeminnow have been removed from the Snake and Columbia rivers through the sport reward program. Last year, 191,154 northern pikeminnow were turned in. As a result, northern pikeminnow predation on juvenile salmon in 2007 was cut by an estimated 37 percent.

The annual pikeminnow program kicked off the week of May 5 and is open through Sept. 29.

Administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, the program is designed to reduce the number of, but not eradicate, northern pikeminnow.

Anglers who register and follow the rules of the program will be paid $4 per fish up to 100 pikeminnow. The bounty jumps to $5 per fish for each fish over 101 total and $8 per fish for 401 fish and above. There are hundreds of pikeminnow in the basin with special tags worth $500 each to lucky anglers.

On top of these existing reward incentives, there will be four weekly drawings with five $2,000 prizes each week starting Aug. 30 and concluding Sept. 26.

For a link to a website with details on the program, registration and pikeminnow fishing tips, go to www.myeaglenews.com.