I always thought of hardheads as being more silvery and pikeminnow as being more copper colored. But I’m far from a minnow expert.
I always thought of hardheads as being more silvery and pikeminnow as being more copper colored. But I’m far from a minnow expert.
2020 is the 20th year that there has been a bounty on pikeminnows on the Columbia and lower Snake River drainages. Funded by Bonneville Power.
2018 the top bounty fisherman made $74,000- pretty good reason to go fishing.
https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel/pikeminnow (WA Fish & Wildlife site with links to other related sites.)
Growing up fishing in WA-ID-OR we were taught to thrown them on the bank for the birds & critters to eat. Other fishermen would yell at you if you threw one back in the water. Somewhere along the way it became socially unacceptable to throw them on the bank.
Jim
I participated in a study to catch some cyprinids for a parasite study a fisheries professional was conducting and was told the way to distinguish between the two is to look at the length of the maxillaries. (PMs have bigger mouths than Hardheads) and if the mouth extends back to or beyond the leading edge of the eye the fish is a PM. Also if you open the mouth of the fish if there's a layer of skin connecting the upper mandible to the head of the fish, it's a Hardhead.
By my account, hardheads are stouter through the body than PMs but they don't get nearly as big as PMs do. PMs are more elongated in appearance. The fish that John posted looks like a PM to me.
The biggest Hardhead I've ever caught out of the lower Feather was about 18". PMs get substantially larger. Agree with Matt that Hardheads fight harder: every HH I've ever hooked I initially thought was a Mykiss, and I've never thought any PM I've ever hooked was anything but a PM.
I was also told that these cyprinids are native to the Napa and Russian, which I did not know, but they were unintentionally introduced into the Eel probably by an angler that was using PMs as bait.
HHs generally are not largely piscivorous like PMs.
The fish Troutsource caught look to be Hardheads for sure, kinda cool as you don’t see them at that size too often on the AR. John’s fish looks like a squaw to me though, different mouth and scales than a hard head. I bet the stripes were on that school after dark.
Whatever you want to call them, they're all squawfish to most anyone who fishes for stripers in local rivers. I agree that squawfish are a favorite prey of stripers because there are so many of them everywhere. My pev is blaming striped bass for the demise of salmon and steelhead populations when in fact it's a water grab by central valley farmers, and there is no mention of other native predators (squawfish) that do far more damage to smolt populations than ever thought of.
He's a couple of pictures of striper fishermen holding these predators:
I wish they'd put a bounty on them around here.
Tony
TONY BUZOLICH
Feather River Fly
Yuba City, CA.
(530) 790-7180
This site seems to have every freshwater fish in California. Native and non native. Sacramento Suckers, pike minnows and hardhead are all there and all native. Apparently the pikeminnow was sometimes called the squawfish but there were complaints that the name was derogatory and was dropped in favor of the name pikeminnow.
http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/
Last edited by John H; 05-09-2020 at 10:36 AM.
John H-
Man, you take the best fish photos! You make it look easy...
Definitely a Sacramento Pike-minnow and a healthy-looking specimen who appears to have settled into his piscivorous ways based on the fly he took! Your photo partially shows the most reliable diagnostic to tell Pike-minnow and Hardhead apart- the upper lip margin. On a Pike-minnow the upper-lip margin is "entire" or forms a complete ring-like separation where the upper-lip attaches to the snout. On a Hardhead the upper lip margin is not entire but is interrupted at the tip of the snout forming a "frenum". if you have a fish in-hand point it at you so you are staring it down eye-to eye and gently pinch the upper-lip and pull down to inspect the lip margin. Cheers! Matt
Church of Wild Steelhead!
Had a 20+ lb squawfish follow my striper fly in years ago under the Fair oaks bridge! Bonk those fish!
20 lbs is HUGE! Ive seen them up to 8 easily...i release them now when i catch them on the russian after being told by several anglers that they are indeed native, but havent been able to verify that or not. Mostly i just have a hard time killing something and not eating it...there was a spot on the middle fork eel in mendo NF where wed hike into as teenagers and camp, i remember we cooked a pikeminnow over the campfire once and it was absolutely disgusting. Like eggwhites with a really gnarly aftertaste.
Bonk those fish?
They are native fish living in their native water. I say let them live. If you want to help the fish bonk a dam.
Last edited by John H; 05-10-2020 at 10:45 AM.
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