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Rounding up invaders By Mark Freeman Aug 25, 2022 02:44 PM A A Abel Quiroz has caught more than 115 total pounds of invasive pikeminnows this month in the Rogue River. [Courtesy photo] Rogue River pikeminnow derby closes out its fourth year GRANTS PASS — Abel Quiroz is taking it upon himself to personally put the hurt to the Rogue River’s invasive pikeminnows, even giving up eating fried chicken skins to do it. The skin is the main bait he’s used to cull 115 pounds — and counting — of pikeminnows from the middle Rogue during this month’s state-run pikeminnow derby designed to point the middle finger toward these wild salmon predators no one wants here. “I’m trying to do as much as I can,” says Quiroz, 36, who owns a Grants Pass doughnut shop. “It’s been fun. I’ve been catching a lot of big ones. It’s exciting. But I don’t get to eat my fried chicken skins.” If Quiroz took his one-man pikeminnow wrecking crew to the Columbia River, he could make upward of six figures. But on the Rogue, he’s vying for a $50 gift card. Regardless, whacking pikeminnows for the sake of wild salmon is plenty enough for Quiroz to drag his three kids to the Rogue six days a week to catch these invasive fish. “I like to go to the river a lot,” Quiroz says. “That’s my life, man.” This is the fourth consecutive August the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has held this pikeminnow fishing derby that’s largely a symbolic attempt to raise awareness of invasive species that can create negative impacts to native species like salmon and steelhead. Pikeminnows, known in the past as squawfish, and wild salmon have lived together in the Rogue since pikeminnows were illegally introduced during an overflow of a farm pond in the Grave Creek drainage in the late 1970s. They are native to Oregon, but not the Rogue Basin. And therein lies the rub. A 1993 ODFW study showed pikeminnows more than 10 inches long in the Rogue eat infant wild salmon and steelhead, and juveniles out-compete wild salmon and steelhead fry for food and space. In this very low-key derby called a “roundup,” anglers are asked to catch as many pikeminnows from the Rogue under legal circumstances, turn them in at collection stations and register for various prizes through contests and raffles. Categories are for the largest pikeminnow, the largest five fish and the highest overall poundage. There also is a raffle for anyone who catches at least one pikeminnow and sends a photo of their catch by Sunday night to [email protected]. The raffle has plenty of top prizes. Quiroz appears to be on pace to win the highest poundage award, which will get him a $50 gift card from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Medford. Second place is a $20 gift card to Black Bird Shopping Center. “Abel’s spent more money on gas than what he’ll win,” says Ryan Battleson, the ODFW fish biologist who coordinates the derby along with a slew of volunteers. Battleson makes no claims that the derby really makes a difference in pikeminnow population or their impacts on wild salmon and steelhead. But it’s a good way to tell this simple wild salmon story. Invasive species: Bad. Good, cold habitat: Good. “That’s our habitat and invasive species lecture,” Battleson says. Pikeminnows do their biggest damage in reservoirs, which is why they’ve been singled out financially in the Columbia River for angler attacks. The Bonneville Power Administration pays hefty bounties for pikeminnows there, with some anglers historically cashing in more than $100,000. No such luck here. An 2020 Oregon Legislature bill sought a minor pikeminnow bounty here, but it never gained traction. “If I had a bounty program, I think we could put a dent in these fish,” Battleson says. “But we don’t.” And neither does the annual roundup, Battleson acknowledges. “It’s a plug for how you can grow more salmon and steelhead and encourage kids to go out and fish,” Battleson says. Quiroz likes to bring his three kids with him to the river, fishing six days a week after putting in a full graveyard shift at his Magic Donuts & Coffee shop. Eschewing chicken gizzards as bait, they now rely on friend chicken skins. They cast lines with weights and no bobbers, letting the skins bounce slowly along the riverbottom in pikeminnowy waters. Places like Rainbow Bar near Galice and under the Gold Hill bridge are flush with pikeminnows, he says. Quiroz has caught them as large as 21 1/2 inches so far this month. If he wasn’t hoarding them for the derby, Quiroz occasionally eats them. “I deep-fry them, with lots of lime,” he says. Quiroz knows he’s getting very little bang for the gas buck he’s paying to hit his favorite pikeminnow haunts. He knows he could swing some serious coin if he took his talents to the Columbia. “A lot of people are telling me that,” Quiroz says. “I hear all that, man — that those guys up there don’t need to work, that they just spend their days on the river. But I got a life down here.” Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Reach him at 541-776-4470 or email him at [email protected].