Northern Pikeminnow
The largest native member of the minnow family in the Pacific Northwest, this big cyprinid swims throughout the Columbia and Snake river basins and into coastal drainages from Oregon up through interior Idaho and western Montana.
Most anglers know it from the Columbia/Snake bounty fishery, where a paid sport-reward program targets predatory adults to ease pressure on juvenile salmon.
Scientific Name: Ptychocheilus oregonensis
Also known as Northern Squawfish, Columbia River Dace, Squawfish
- Elongated, fusiform body with a dark olive to dusky-green back, silvery sides, and a cream belly; juveniles wear a distinct black spot at the base of the deeply forked tail.
- The tell is the mouth: long, somewhat flattened snout with a large terminal, toothless gape that extends back past the front of the eye.
- Spawning fish color up — fins flush bright orange and bodies deepen to olive-green or tan.
- Easily mixed up with peamouth, but peamouth has a small round mouth, red lips, and two dark side bars; the pikeminnow's wide gape and plain silver flanks set it apart.
What to know
Habitat Distribution
- Native to the Columbia River basin and its major tributaries — Snake, Willamette, Deschutes, Yakima — plus coastal and Puget Sound drainages, with the range reaching east into Idaho's Snake system, western Montana, and as far as Nevada.
- Adapts equally well to lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, holding in deep channels, sloughs, and shorelines and pushing into tributaries to spawn.
- Densities have climbed in mainstem reservoirs behind hydropower dams, where slack water concentrates both adult fish and the salmonid smolts they eat.
Specific Spots
- Rocky tailraces below dams, tributary mouths, points, eddies, pile rows, and ledges hold the bulk of catchable fish — most come from 7 to 25 feet of water.
- Big adults sit deeper through the day and slide into shallower water at low light; sunrise, sunset, and after dark put more fish within reach of the bank.
- In tidal and estuary reaches, look for slow water tucked behind structure — rocks, logs, pilings, eelgrass — rather than the main current seam.
- Juveniles stack on docks, weeds, and shoreline silt/gravel flats, while mature predators use deeper structure nearby.
Northern Pikeminnow FAQ
Answers from onWater's species guide.
What are the best lures and bait for Northern Pikeminnow?
Worms are the workhorse bait; chicken liver, salmon eggs, cut fish, and fish guts all produce, fished on a sliding sinker drift rig, a back-bouncing setup, or a three-way bank rig depending on current.
What flies work for Northern Pikeminnow?
Weighted streamers, Clouser Minnows and jig-style baitfish patterns (both imitate juvenile fish like smolts and shiners), are the primary tools on big water, where you need to get deep to find adults.
What do Northern Pikeminnow eat?
Adults bigger than about 13 inches turn primarily piscivorous, eating salmon and steelhead smolts, perch, sculpins, suckers, and shiners, which is why baitfish-profile crankbaits, minnow plugs, and weighted streamers like Clouser Minnows (which imitate baitfish) are the productive choices.
Where do Northern Pikeminnow live?
Native to the Columbia River basin and its major tributaries, Snake, Willamette, Deschutes, Yakima, plus coastal and Puget Sound drainages, with the range reaching east into Idaho's Snake system, western Montana, and as far as Nevada.
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