Reward angler earns $81,000
A Gresham, Ore., angler earned more than $81,000 this year to top the Columbia-Snake river northern pikeminnow reward program.
Nikolay Zaremskiy caught 13 tagged fish earning $6,500 to boost his total income to $81,366. Tagged pikeminnow are worth up to $500 each.
No. 2 and No. 3 in earnings were David Vasilchuk at $53,258 and Viktor Orlovskiy at $36,398. Both are from Vancouver.
Overall, anglers caught 173,112 pikeminnow, earning more than $1.2 million in rewards.
The program pays a reward for catching the predators which eat millions of young salmon and steelhead annually. Research shows reducing pikeminnow numbers helps the young fish survive the downstream journey.
The reward varies from $4 to $8 per fish, the amount getting larger the more fish caught. The annual program starts in May and ends in late September or early October.
This year’s catch is up about 30,000 pikeminnow from 2009.
Flyfishers to meet Dec. 15 in Camas
CAMAS — The Clark-Skamania Flyfishers will meet at 6 p.m. Dec. 15 at Camas Meadows Golf Club, 4105 N.W. Camas Meadows Drive.
Presentations of club events and activities will be shown, plus from members of their individual trips.
The public is welcome. For more information, call Kemper Hall at 360-225-9088 or go to the club’s web site at www.clark-skamania-flyfishers.org.
Oregon mulls new wildlife area parking fee
PORTLAND — The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider on Friday establishing new parking permit fees for several of the state’s wildlife areas.
The commission meets beginning at 8 a.m. at the Ramada Inn and Suites, 6221 N.E. 82nd Ave.
Proposed is a $7 daily parking permit and $22 annual permit to be phased in over three years. Hunting license holders would receive a free permit.
The fees would begin in 2012 at Denman, E.E. Wilson, Ladd Marsh and Summer Lake wildlife areas. The fees would be extended in 2013 to Klamath, Fern Ridge, White River and Phillip W. Schneider wildlife areas. In 2014, the Elkhorn, Columbia Basin and Jewell Meadows wildlife areas would get fees.
Federal excise taxes on sporting arms and ammunition plus hunting license fees currently pay for maintenance and operation of the areas.
Wildlife viewers, hikers, dog walkers and others increasingly use the areas.
