What's the deal with Seeley Northerns?

[Jaimej]

I talked to some of the old timers from Seeley,

They all say that this is the worst year for Northerns that they can ever remember.

Where did all the Pike go? Anyone have any ideas?

[Neptune]

I heard the same thing.  I also heard that the lake has endured a great deal of pressure for the northerns.  Maybe this is the fallout of that pressure....

Have you tried Echo lake?


Good Fishing 

[ninepipe]

That's what happens when everybody kills what they catch. There is no mystery to it.

[Neptune]

One of the fishing regulation exceptions on Seeley lake  is for the limit on Pike....there is not limit

Maybe this finally caught up with the Pike population...

It is strange, this lake has Kokanee in it(MT FWP stocks almost 100k every year since '97) and Pike love those little buggers more than anything.  There are also so many other forage fish for them, so I'm pretty sure it isn't a pressure for food situation....

Good Fishing 

[Jaimej]

We release all that are able to go free (all that aren't hooked to badly)!

One of the old timers was saying that he though (an unnamed) government agency ; ) came in with gil nets and thinned the population last spring.

He had nothing to base it on - just his suspision..

I do agree though, everyone seems to think they need to keep the fish - then wonder why there are not as many the next time....

[Neptune]

Pike would be a B!@ch to Gill net, that head is huge and they would have to use a bunch of different Gill nets to accommodate all the different sizes of pike....  That would have been a substantial undertaking...

...But anything is possible.

Good Fishing