Tactics

An aggressive, bucket-mouthed predator, the Colorado Pikeminnow can be caught on spin, fly, or casting tackle. Stout gear is always a necessary precaution, since the fish can grow large enough to break even the strongest lines, and the rocky, swift river is almost as much of a hazard as the giant fish. According to many of the now-elderly anglers who fished the Colorado River in its prime, the Pikeminnow was unmatched as a game fish:

I pitched that green frog out there and this [Colorado pikeminnow] hit it, just about straight across, and he ran down that fast water, riffles, and took out about 200 feet of line before I turned him around. It was one of the most thrilling fish I ever caught if you want to know the truth. - Gene Bittler of Maybell, CO

Colorado Pikeminnows are known to eat everything from fish and frogs to birds and rabbits. Spoons were very popular for catching them, especially the classic red-and-white daredevil and the five of diamonds. Other fishermen fished them with baits, including chunks of chub meat and the severed heads of freshly-killed cottontail rabbits. Some early fishermen even capitalized on the peculiar "swallow hatch" on certain canyons of the upper Colorado:

We would go down into Lodore Canyon until we came to the first rapids. That's as far as we dared to go because we had to turn around and go back upstream. There were hundreds of swallows who had their nests built of mud on the canyon walls. This one time when we were fishing, the baby swallows were just leaving the nest. A lot of them fell into the river ... Every big squawfish in the Green River must have migrated to the canyon to feast on the swallows because we sure caught a lot of them, or let's say, we had a lot of them hooked. The tackle we were using was a little light for a 50-pound fish. We managed to land a lot of 10 to 20 pounders. Every one that we gutted out had a stomach plumb full of baby swallows! - Chuck Mack of Craig, CO

Hell yes. If anyone can think of something more entertaining than chucking topwater lures that imitate baby birds at rampaging 90-pound pikeminnows in a vast, wild, whitewater canyon, I'd like to hear about it. In my mind, that right there is worth knocking out a few dams to restore this amazing fish to its former glory. You can grow your strawberries somewhere else.

The Future

Can the Great Colorado Pikeminnow survive? The future of this incredible fish is uncertain. Even now, nefarious Colorado water managers are greedily eyeing the waters of the Yampa River, one of its last spawning areas. Thirsty urbanites obsessed with sprawling acres of turfgrass shriek for more lawns and golf courses. But I know there are a lot of other anglers out there who fervently hope that someday, a restored pikeminnow fishery will allow them to match wits with this master of the great desert rivers again. If more people could see them, experience them, and learn to appreciate them, maybe something might change someday. Maybe the great western rivers can be restored, and the great White Salmon of the Colorado can be returned to its throne as the ultimate game fish of Western North America.