The Future of Northern Pike

[Brad B]

I get tired of people telling others what they think is a "trophy" is.

I would like someone to show me where I can find a source to show me what a "trophy" is.

I believe a "trophy" is different to everyone. I can recall catching a 5 pound fish and thinking for years it was an incredible "trophy"

I understand I will not have the most popular opinion here but.

I challenge someone to show me the definition of a "trophy" fish.

I believe it is different to most people.

I totally agree with you. A trophy to one person may not be a trophy to the next person. it is like the debate of what is a mountable fish. it is different for everyone.

[RK]

I get tired of people telling others what they think is a "trophy" is.

I would like someone to show me where I can find a source to show me what a "trophy" is.

I believe a "trophy" is different to everyone. I can recall catching a 5 pound fish and thinking for years it was an incredible "trophy"

I understand I will not have the most popular opinion here but.

I challenge someone to show me the definition of a "trophy" fish.

I believe it is different to most people.

You certainly have a point. A "trophy" is a personal definition, not an arbitrary number. The 50-inch standard for muskies has bothered me for years for that reason.

A trophy is also relative to what a species or body of water is capable of. In a small stream, a 12" brookie is a trophy.

But I can say for certain that if pike aren't protected in at least some bodies of water, everyone's definition of a trophy pike will continue to be adjusted downward...

You shouldn't have to go to Canada to see a 20 pound pike.

[Lucius]

Definition of trophy:

anything serving as a token or evidence of victory, valor, skill, etc.

Now I understand that many people will have their own definition of trophy, but to catch smaller fish (especially smaller pike) is not nearly as difficult to catch a pike of 40"+. Hell, I have been fishing for one for over 15 years now, and the closest I have come is 36". It takes that extra bit of skill to achieve a "victory" over the species by catching a very large fish and not just a medium sized fish.

I agree with you RK, you shouldn't have to go to Canada to catch a 20 pound pike. I would like to see the fishery return to the glory days.

[mrklean]

it would be nice to see more stocking but where is the money gonna come from?

[Muskiefool]

There are only a small handful; actually less than that having trophy reg's, Red, Bass Lake,Big Swan,Ceder,Crow Wing,Elephant,Warroad River,Mitchell Lake,Sturgeon Lake,Twenty One Lake,and LOTW. So 12 waters where fish over 36 inches are protected, I may have missed 1; I'm sure these reg's are too much for some but I doubt the majority of the 1.4 million anglers have much of a problem with it.

One thing we need to keep in mind is the "Tool Box Reg's" 20-24 to 36 or the 1 over 30 is "not" a trophy regulation, this is a management tool that is used to help restore pike populations to a lower level and increase the average size.

Another good thing about the "Tool box" management lakes is the benefit to walleye stocking efforts in lakes with healthy lower Pike populations, when the DNR stocks hammer handle lakes your lic. dollars essentially go into the "Feed a stunted pike program".

How much wasted money and effort goes to this walleye program in MN where we raise more walleyes than any other state; and for what? to feed pike, so you can get your jigs bit off and lose shad raps, so the prime Muskie and Bass spots are overrun buy hammer handle slimers.

Now they want more runt Pike lakes under the guise "We need family's to get a meal of fish"; hogwash.

[Shawn Kellett]

it would be nice to see more stocking but where is the money gonna come from?

Why do pike need to be stocked? They breed like rabbits in most of the waters they're present in. That's the whole problem with getting them to a large size: they eat each other out of house and home when they're small.

[Gordie]

I also feel you shouldnt have to go to canada to catch a trophy but on the other hand you dont have to designated lakes to be said only trophy lakes either I think that almost every lake has the potential to be a trophy lake and yes there are very many lakes that seem to have nothing but hammer handels in them but with out those hammer handels you will not have big pike either. If you kill off all the hammer handels in the long run your killing off all the big pike as well so to speak.

I fished a lake for perch this past winter and thought that this would be a great lake to spear because of the size of the perch and as I talked with a couple of locals on the ice and mention that and they said it was a lake with speacial pike regs and that you could only take one pike over 36 inches and the limit was 9 under 22 inches. You could clearly see the discust on the guys face as he said this to me so I asked him about it and he stated that since those regs were put on the lake he has noticed that there was a really big decrease in the anglers for northern pike. He also said that there was still guys that spear and angle for them but only a select few.

How are the regs helping this body of water?

Do these regs shut down abody of water with out actually closing it to fishing?

IMO People lose intrest in a fish when a restriction like this is put into place and it is human nature that bigger is better.

[Greyhairedpiker]

I thank the DNR for managing our waters; habitat & protecting water quality are still the biggest factor. Then comes, limits & slot requirements.

For me now it’s enjoying the time on the water just fishing: not chasing the big trophy fish, that can become frustrating. I am teaching my grand kids the joy of fishing, no locker room talk on my boat ( mine is bigger then yours.)

Big kids also get big smiles when they catch big or small pike.

[esoxhunter11]

Why do european pike grow bigger than North American pike. I heard that there isnt much difference in the strain.

[Acemac]

It's the type of lakes they have over there.

[Shawn Kellett]

And the fact we harvest about 85% of all fish caught over 28". They can't get to 45" if you keep them at 30".

[Nick Kuhn]

Bigger forage and a bit of a different strain. Notice those pike have much larger heads to accommodate for the bigger prey. A european pike is actually probably closer to a muskie in terms of body shape/size than it is to an American northern pike.

[goblueM]

it would be nice to see more stocking but where is the money gonna come from?

pike don't need to be stocked. they need time to grow and not to have the big individuals removed from the population

why do you think many lakes have tons of hammer handle pike? they reproduce like crazy

reduced harvest is the answer, not increased stocking. ESPECIALLY in times of reduced budget for the DNR

[FutbolGuru]

"They can't get to 45" if you keep them at 30"."

Exactly.

[smeese]

They need more support from their catchers, meaning less on the table for dinner, and more replicas instead of skin mounts. Musky fishing took a long time to get this way and still has a long way to go, but you need to make the move if you target this species incase the next guy does not.

[cbrooks]

Smeese has a good point. Look at how big C&R is with muskyfishing. If more anglers could recongize the importance or rarity of large pike then maybe there could be better opportunities for them.

[esoxhunter11]

Is there any sort of Northern Pike club. If not I think there should be, just like Muskies Inc. I dont think it is needed for stocking, but for research and awareness. I think a Big pike should be prized as much as a muskie. I love fishing for either, but I cant seem to find big pike in MN, they are more elusive than big muskie.

[Shawn Kellett]

There are a lot of people who want that type of organization for pike but none that will step up to the plate and put it together. Right now the only group that speaks out for better pike management is Muskies Inc. Pike Inc actually spoke out AGAINST better management for increasing quality pike fishing.

[reinhard1]

i share your interest in pike fishing. there are a few lakes in minnesota that still hold good populations of big pike. i will mention just one of many. that is grindstone lake near sanstone. look it up in the dnr site under lake finder. i have posted about this lake before about all the different game fish available. the key here is that this is a deep lake and has oxygen levels down to 100ft. and this lake has trout and smelt pike grow big and fat on. this lake does not get the pressure like other lakes becouse in my opinion it is not a walley lake. the best time to get the big pike is early in the year thru june and in the fall and on hard water. carl lovgren who caught the previous state record brown and sturgeon out of here told me about the large pike in this lake. he has passed on but i learned a lot from him. this time of the year the big ones hang out suspended in deep water following the smelt. well you get the idea. if you need more info. let me know through this post. good luck.

[solbes]

I won't ever have a problem with someone taking a trophy for the wall. I personally love the replicas because the fish gets to swim away, but that is a personal opinion only. Taking the larger pike, and I'm talking over 30 inchers here, for the dinner plate just seems kinda lazy in my mind. Why not catch 2 or 3 mid 20's fish and keep those instead? If they are in the 30"s let em grow so that someday a kid or a "kid at heart" catches that monster. I personally get quite an adrenaline rush seeing those pike approach and eclipse the 40" mark. I admire the Muskies Inc organization for what they have done. Would be great to see something similar for pike (although naturally this will be a smaller organization that's proportional to the interest).

[merkman]

There are a lot of people who want that type of organization for pike but none that will step up to the plate and put it together. Right now the only group that speaks out for better pike management is Muskies Inc. Pike Inc actually spoke out AGAINST better management for increasing quality pike fishing.

Define "better"

From what I have seen Muskies Inc. has not spoke out for "better" pike management.

It seems Muskies Inc's goals are protecting their investment on muskie stocking from small northern pike that can out compete the muskies, using large northern pike as a forage base for very large muskies, and trying to enact more laws on northern pike since the same methods and equipment are used to catch northern pike that are used to catch muskies.

We already have one summer only catch and release esox species; do we really need another one?

Go enjoy what you have created, unless of course you are not happy with it.

Muskies Inc does many good things for the resource, unfortunately not everything they do falls into that category. Many times it is with good intent, but with less than good results. Sometimes too much of a "good thing", well... just ain't that "good".

The biggest thing the Northern Pike need is a group of sportsmen who are going to unite people for a common cause, not a group who tries to create division amongst sportsmen to further their agenda of an all species summer only 100% "no kill" (minus summer hooking mortality of course.. cause that's different.... an accident.... excusable) fishery.

[merkman]

pike don't need to be stocked.

But yes they do.

The larger pike need to be removed from the winter kill lakes BEFORE they croak or the lake gets turned over to liberalized fishing, and they need to be placed into lakes that experience more fishing pressure or lakes that need larger pike in them.

If you look at the stocking reports the DNR does stock some larger pike in lakes but it seems that is a great way to get larger pike in the lakes that need them.

And most of all; we all need to educate each other on the importance of keeping the small northern pike and leaving the big girls swim.

It is a world of difference from where things were 10 or 20 years ago; it is not happening overnight but things are changing.

Educate don’t legislate or eradicate, we are all in this together.

[MikeEiden]

aahh.. never mind. Lost cause with some people.

[bbc nova]

I'm certainly not trying to start an argument saying that all waters should be managed for trophy fish alone, but on the issue of kids and the fish they catch:

I've seen more children hooked on fishing by catching one amazing trophy fish. I have also seen plenty of children who enjoy bluegill fishing get turned off as they grow older, because they don't realize there are bigger challenges and bigger rewards out there.

My girlfriend doesn't like fishing too much, but she used to as a kid. She also has never caught anything except small perch and sunfish. I feel that the two go hand in hand. This year I'm going to get her hooked into a carp or other easy to find larger fish in the teens. I'm confident she will get energized by it and learn that fishing can be exciting and a challenge.

My brother had a similar experience this past year. He's never been much of a fisherman, and never really understood the "drive" for chasing trophy fish. He's more an "action" kind of guy when it comes to fishing, wanting constant small fish pecking at his lure. Last summer he hooked into his first musky, a very chunky 45''er, and certainly dwarfed any fish he's ever caught. There was an instant change in his opinion of fishing. Our last day fishing together was spent chasing muskies. I've never seen him so focused on each and every cast.. lol.

All I'm trying to say is that if you have kids, don't ONLY take them bluegill fishing. Sometimes hooking into a big fish can really put a spark into someone's opinion of fishing.

Agreed.

Remember a "big" fish doesnt have to be that big for a kid. 25 in seems like a monster. Here is my 7 year old. Now he wants bigger LOL