Yes you read correctly, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced there is $50,000 in reward money swimming in Lake Pend Oreille.
Anglers can catch and turn in tagged walleye heads to the Fish & Game freezers for a cash prize reward.
CBS2 reports nearly 200 people participated in the first season and took home just under $9,000 in prize money.
And, for the lottery’s second year, even more $1,000 fish were stocked.
In order to enter the lottery, anglers submitted walleye heads to Fish & Game freezers in their region.
There were two ways to win. First, anglers could catch walleye implanted with a microscopic, $1,000 reward tag in their snout, undetectable without a special scanner. Anyone who submitted a tagged head would automatically win. Second, each head submitted provided one entry into a monthly drawing of ten $100 rewards.
None of the $1,000 tagged fish were submitted last year, but IDFG wants to change that.
“Our goal is to tag an additional 50 high-dollar reward fish ahead of Memorial Day weekend,” said Ken Bouwens, mitigation staff biologist for Fish and Game.
For more information on the lottery including first year trends provide fishing clues and month by month maps go to:
https://idfg.idaho.gov/blog/2020/04/lake-pend-oreille-walleye-lottery-enters-second-year-even-more-1000-fish
