The reality of properly managed pike, the effect of improper managment

[ferrari175]

This is an article from December/Jan In-Fisherman in regards to growing trophy pike and proper management.  If proper management tactics are not enforced,  we will start seeing smaller and more numerous pike in our waters.  Whether you are for or against pike, they are here and here to stay.  Proper management is critical to the state to turn this unwanted “junk fish” into a productive and economically beneficial trophy fishery.

Understanding big pike

Recruitment, growth, and mortality:  three words that on the surface may not make an anglers ears ring but buzz loudly in a fishery biologists.  These three rate functions are important because they interact with fish populations. Recruitment and growth add, mortality subtracts.  What results are characteristics of a fish stock age structure size structure and density at any point in time.  Sounds like a simple equation.  Yet careers are made trying to understand the nuances of these connections what affects the rate functions how to best measure them and how to most effectively manipulate them to achieve some desired end result.

   In the realm of pike management, a common goal is to increase pike size in systems where later pike once swam or where at least more common.  Another is sustaining top notch populations that currently exist.  Although we don’t have all the answers yet, and it takes biological time to see results, the science is advancing on how to get the job done.  Meanwhile, as progress inches forward, pike fisheries may be experiencing new challenges.  

Pike Places

   Habitat has a strong, if not the greatest , influence on pike reproductive success, recruitment (survival to adulthood), and growth rates.  Meeting basic environmental requirements is a start, such as pike being a cool water species with a specific thermal niche.  Beyond that, what the characteristics of waters that historically produce big pike over the long run?

   That’s a question Peter Jacoson, fishery researcher with the Minnesota DNR, approached using long term fishing contest data for pike caught in northwestern Minnesota lakes between 1924 and 1989.  He asked: What factors are correlated with catches of trophy pike ( those greater than 15 pounds) on a per acre basis?  More big pike came from larger deeper lakes with small littoral zones (areas less than15ft ) biomasses of pray fishes suckers, perch and ciscoes were also related factors.  

   Jacobson concluded that trophy pike management has the best chance of succeeding in lakes that maintain a cool (68 degree F) water throughout summer, and that larger deeper lakes with ciscoes may show the most promise.  Small pike, thought, grew best in shallow fertile lakes with long growing seasons.
   Along similar lines, Minnesota fishery biologists Rod Pierce and Cynthia tomcko examined how characteristics of Minnesota lakes affected pike density and biomass.  While the density of pike exceeding 14 inches was lined to the percentage of littoral habitat, lake area and shoreline length were more important factors for pike longer than 20 inches, the largest length group tested in the analysis.
   All this points to connections between big pike and deeper, larger waters with thermal refuges during summer, along with coldwater forage like ciscoes.  Make water too warm eliminate thermal refuges, and pike become stressed, suffering longer periods of reduced growth in summer.
   This is a phenomenon I observed while working on my dissertation research at South Dakota State University,  Tracking seasonal growth of pike trough monthly samples at Lake Thomson, a shallow windswept glacial lake in eastern south Dakota, growth ceased in summer while water teps climbed through the mid to upper 70s.  The lake didn’t stratify so no thermo cline related thermal refuge existed. Annual growth rates were astoundingly fast overall however occurring during the cool and cold water periods.  But pike tended to top out in the upper 30in range.
   Limited production of trophies at lake Thompson points to a live fast die young lifestyle in warmer waters such as those at the southern fringe of the pikes distribution.  When I examined pike entries (15puonds or 34 in) in south Dakota anger awards program during the years around the timeframe of my research, only 6% were caught from the states natural lakes the majority taken from large deep reservoirs that thermally stratify.
   
Recruitment Factors

   All this isn’t to say tat smaller lakes don’t produce big pike,  In fact, decades ago, 10 iners extracted from select little gems around our Brainer Minnesota headquarters and elsewhere in the pike belt weren’t uncommon.  The habitat was there and harvest hadn’t yet taken its toll.  Today, its rare but still possible to hook up with a legit gator at some of these locales.  But for trophy pike on small waters, the best bet s are private lakes or remote waters with little pressure.
   Unless a lake has been substantially impacted by shoreline development or where adjacent wetlands used as spawning habitat have been destroyed, most pike lakes don’t have a lack of natural reproduction.  Although habitat loss is a serious issue on some waters, a major limitation to managing for big pike in smaller lakes is that many of them are actually too good at producing pike – small ones.
   Recruitment is a function of reproductive success and survival to adulthood.  To successfully recruit young fish need to grow and service the gauntlet of predation exploitation and other sources of mortality.  The higher the recruitment though the more numbers and usually pounds of pike in a lake.   As pike biomass increases, competition rises, a factor that can slow growth,   What can result is a stunted pike population a large number of slow growing pike with a high natural mortality rate.  Here you might see upwards  of 100 or more adult pike per acre, as opposed to less than five or so per acre in waters with low recruitment
   Recruitment tends to be related to lake size with problems of high recruitment affecting mostly smaller water with emergent vegetation covering a large proportion of the surface area.  Larger lakes are rarely afflicted with stunted pike.  Overpopulation has also bee attributed to lake of appropriate slippery and over harvest of lager pike or a combination of these factors.  

Managing exploitation

   Anglers select for ad harvest larger pike.  In Minnesota for instance pike longer than about 24 inches make up a large portion of he harvest. “we’ve seen harvest rates as igh as 465 for pike longer than 20 inches “ Pierce says.  The result of this size selectivity is that numbers of bigger pike have suffered.
   In a set of orth central Minnesota lakes he fouhd that 9 to 10 pike longer than 14 inches exist per acre onf water on average.  Compared to only a half of a pike per acre for fish longer than 24 inches.” besides density, we can also look at production rates the amount of tissue produced on an annual basis to provide some indication of how much harvest a fishery can sustain,” he says.  “Its really low for the largest pike in a population. The second and third growth years made up 60 to 87% of the annual production while pike age 6 and older averaged only 4 percent.

   That equates to an average production of only a tenth of a pound per acre per year for pike ages 6 and older.   Theoretically if you had a 100 acre lake and removed a 10 pound pike you’d use up the entire production of lager pike for a full year” he says.
   From the persoetive of angling effort, Ontario biologist tTom Mosindy walter momot and peter bolby found that as little as 1.2hrs per hectare of fishing effort removed 50% of the annual pike production in a Canadian shield lake.  More fertile waters can produce more pounds of pike per acre and with stand more harvest but these numbers show how vulnerable the largest pike in a system are.
   Length limits may be the most effective regulation tool for managing harvet and growing larger pike and correct choice of length limit depends largely on recruitment.  Where recurrent is high and there are high densities of slow growing pike protected slot length limits allow harvest of small pike.  The intent: thin the numbers of smaller pike to improve growth and size structure of the remaining pike while protecting larger fish within the slot.  The problem. :  anglers generally don’t harvest small pike enough to show any effect  Improvements if any tend to be due to some pike making it through the growth bottleneck into the protected slot.
      High minimum length limits are a better choice for preserving or resorting a trophy pike on waters with low recruitment low density and god growth potential.  High slots maximum length limits and catch and release are other options to restore big pike or to pressure unexploited trophy fisheries once there opened to fishing suck as the gator factories in the far north.
   Since 2003 over 100 lakes in Minnesota have received special length limit regulations one of three in a toolbox of choices based on pike population characteristics a 24-36in protected sot, 30in minimum and 40inch minimums.  Those lakes are under evaluation for10 years
   Pierce however has completed an evaluation of experimental regulations that were imposed between 1989 and 1997 lasting 9 to 15 years.” Those include some slot limits (20-30 in or 22-30 inch maximum )  and a few 30 inch minimums.  Although the length regulations did not work in very lake the bottom line overall was that statewide length limits had a relatively large effect on size structure compared to reference lakes.  The strongest effects seemed to be from maximum and minimum length limits whereas the slot limits had more mixed results probably due to the most fragile of lengths that were protected.  In all length limits seem to be one of the most promising tools we have found for managing pike populations one of the more interesting results is that we didn’t detect any consistent reductions in pike numbers with the length limits.  We had fully expected that improving size structure would result in lower density and that has not happened yet.

[Nor Easter]

Link

[ferrari175]

your kidding me.... should have thought to look at that before I typed it all    thanks though

[Nor Easter]

You gotta be kidding ME! You typoed all that? 

I thought you copy pasted it! Your poor fingers, must be all cramped up! LOL! 

Proper management is critical to the state to turn this unwanted “junk fish” into a productive and economically beneficial trophy fishery.

Sad thing is, ME DIF&W has mostly learned by hindsight in the past so it will just be another one of those, "Oh, we now realize what we should have done." 

[ferrari175]

Dang straight I typed it, means that much to me.  And sadly you are correct, I only hope MABY they can be stopped before it is too late.

[buddah]

Dang straight I typed it, means that much to me.  And sadly you are correct, I only hope MABY they can be stopped before it is too late.

What exactly do you want them to stop doing?

[Mainehazmt]

kill the invasive pike   perch ect....   lol

[buddah]

If&W doesn't kill invasives............. ...........I do.

[Maka]

If&W doesn't kill invasives............. ...........I do.

Well said.

[Sinnian]

This going to be a loooooooooooong Pike versus trout/salmon, etc. season - lol 

Scott should keep count of how many boards get closed/pulled due to this debate.

[maineduckhunter]

The problem with this post is that the State does not manage Pike...and hopefully NEVER will....but other then that its a great post!!! Thanks porsce175

[Westerly]

If&W doesn't kill invasives............. ...........I do.

 

[Sinnian]

Thanks porsce175

Aaron you looking for an early lead on the pot stirrer award? 

[ferrari175]

What exactly do you want them to stop doing?

I would like them to stop treating a potential trophy fishery, that could become economically the size of the salmon fishery, as a junk fish.  Properly manage it, deiced where the pike will have the best chance at being trophy and designate such waters and then work on getting them out (with no baglimets, derby's ect) on bodies of water where they will not obtain trophy size,

If you look at pike from a business point of view AND an angling point of view, it is win win and this state could use a little more cash flow and a little less taxes.  I am all for a trophy pike fishery, especially if it could help lower taxes 

[ferrari175]

The problem with this post is that the State does not manage Pike...and hopefully NEVER will....but other then that its a great post!!! Thanks porsce175

Apparently you cant tell the difference between a Porsche and a Ferrari, I am surprised you can tell the difference between a Salmon and a pike   

But in all seriousness, you are entitled to your opinion no mater how ignorant you may be on a specific issue. If you were to do some real research and realize how this fishery could truly benifit the state, Guides, sportlsman and tax payers, you might change your mind.  The sad thing is, people who fail to properly educate themselves are the most dangerous. 

[gamefisher]

Ferrari - I'm not sure if you are old enough to remember this (not a slam) but the State went down this "slippery slope" for over a decade here in Maine, prior to repealing the pike rules a few years ago.  In that time, the number of pike lakes went from a handful to now over 50 confirmed lakes and ponds.  You will have a tough time convincing me or many of these other guys that said protection didn't have a DIRECT impact on the spread of these invasives and an equally difficult time convincing people that any illegal intro. deserves respect or regulation.  I for one commend IFW for having the courage to right the wrong doing.

[ferrari175]

I for one commend IFW for having the courage to right the wrong doing.

Commend them for what ruining yet another fishery that was mismanaged by now not managing it at all?  Its not an easy job but the pike are not going away there size may diminish and the appeal to catch them may drop as a result but there effect on the ecosystem will still be the same.  Properly managed, you could have a few lakes with big fish common, unprofessionally managed you will have lots of lakes with small pike everywhere because all the big ones and the genes they had with them, have been taken out.  

and no offense taken,  I have been into this pike/salmon/laker thing since I was 5 years old and have spend a lot of time in my short 25 years researching it.  I may not be as old as most but I would bet that I have done far more research on the issue than most.  I spent an entire semester in college for a class doing a long paper on this topic (sadly I no longer have it and really wish I did) what has happened sucks, but we need to make the most of it

[Sinnian]

I may not be as old as most but I would bet that I have done far more research on the issue than most.  I spent an entire semester in college for a class doing a long paper on this topic (sadly I no longer have it and really wish I did) what has happened sucks, but we need to make the most of it

I admire your dedication, but if you do a search on the Maine board on this topic, you will see that your position has had its champions and they too did quite a bit of research on the subject.

It is not a debate that one can win, and so far as I have seen swayed very few, if any, to the opposing side.

Feel free to continue the fight ~ just thought I'd try to save you some Carpal Tunnel, time, and/or heartache.

Tight Lines ~ Jeff

[ferrari175]

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate it.  In some regards I am still young and dumb and will fight till im numb.  It is sad what has happened but I know that if the effort was put it, it could become a valuable resource to the state and when I see something with such great potential get wasted it gets me going.  The salmon fishery used to bring a lot of money to the state and I would like to see that happen again even if it is through a different fishery.

Ben

[_FLAG_]

 ferrari175
Where are you from?

[ferrari175]

Maine?  Gorham, spend most of my summers either up in Belgrade on Long Pond and Messo or out offshore fishing.  Winters in Belgrade area and moose head.

[ICEMAINEiac]

Did you grow up in Gorham ?

[Double-L]

   Ferrari,thanks for the enlightening post; I especially liked the tail end of it where they concluded that the most effective way to manage pike is:  "SIZE LIMITS"....... Who knows, maybe some day?      Just don't believe I'll see it in my lifetime. ( not in this State)  We're too smart to learn from other peoples mistakes! ......You're not alone/ Hang in (your still young)        - Lou    

[ferrari175]

Thanks Lou I appreciate the support and ICEMANEiac, yes I did

[nofishin]

If&W doesn't kill invasives............. ...........I do.

budda ...i love it.  priceless....
i say if we catch and kill as many as possible there are bound to be a few that pass by that might become trophys....thats my management strategy. 

[keepah seekah]

budda ...i love it.  priceless....
i say if we catch and kill as many as possible there are bound to be a few that pass by that might become trophys....thats my management strategy. 

my theory on trout and salmon as well   

[maineduckhunter]

Apparently you cant tell the difference between a Porsche and a Ferrari, I am surprised you can tell the difference between a Salmon and a pike   

 

I can tell the difference between a Pike and Salmon.....Pike Feed Eagles....Salmon Feed Duckhunter!!!   

[JimP]

Funny Adam but the pike are better eating... Good post at the start of the thread... The funny thing about it all is that proper pike management is what is the best way for the trout and salmon as well. Trying to spread the truth is a bit like hitting your head against the wall repeatedly. All this information and more has been posted many times, no one seems to read it.

[maineduckhunter]

Funny Adam but the pike are better eating... Good post at the start of the thread... The funny thing about it all is that proper pike management is what is the best way for the trout and salmon as well. Trying to spread the truth is a bit like hitting your head against the wall repeatedly. All this information and more has been posted many times, no one seems to read it.

Oh know, so I've heard....but it seems like a lot of work to eat them....so maybe someone needs to teach me!!

[TheOutdoorsman]

Oh know, so I've heard....but it seems like a lot of work to eat them....so maybe someone needs to teach me!!

The y-bones can be cut out of the larger specimens...otherwise, throw pieces of fillet into a blender or food processor and make some fish cakes!  Fry them up and the little pieces of bone are soft and can be eaten.  I like those sweet pike and pickerel cakes!

As for fisheries management...by the looks, you guys in Maine have it pretty good up there.  At least your state tries to manage the lakes and streams and maintain them for a certain type of fishery.  Down here, it's all political...if some biologist wants to improve a fishery, they usually can't because of politics.  Now if only the darn bucket biologists would stop putting species where they don't belong, the State would have an easier job!