LLB Pike By-catch - some decent ones

[Brandonkop]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R30-dYbny4

We went to the lake after walleye and the northern pike are always a fun by-catch. So instead of discarding the footage I thought I'd show off some of our nice pike we caught while in search of Walleye. Love catching these toothy critters and even better if they're bigger than the hammer handle size.

[pickrel pat]

Did you target perch at all or just walleye?

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

Did you target perch at all or just walleye?

When we were trolling along I notice in 24 feet of water in one location by the island that there were a lot of small arches near the bottom. I'm suspecting they were perch since this is what they usually look like on the graph. We dropped down some small baited jigs but didn't even get as much as a nibble. So I'm not sure if they just weren't biting, they weren't perch or they didn't want to eat a jig and leach. What perch can resist a jig and leach?

So that's my perch story. But this was our first time to the lake and I'm sure if I targeted perch I could find them eating somewhere because I saw what I thought was schools of perch on the graph.

[lochness]

In order to keep pike, it has to be longer than 75cm. Most other lake, 63cm.
I wonder what is going on there, why 75cm?

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by lochness

In order to keep pike, it has to be longer than 75cm. Most other lake, 63cm.
I wonder what is going on there, why 75cm?

Some lakes have a 75cm catch limit and some a 100cm catch limit. I think lakes that have a tendency to grow bigger pike they will give these larger size limits to give the pike a chance to grow to large proportions.

Some lakes have so many pike they sort of become stunted just like perch so these lakes sometimes have no size restriction or a 63 cm size restriction to thin the population a bit.

At least that is how I see it maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

They actually changed the regulations on Snipe lake to only keep one under 75 cm which seems like a good way to protect the trophy fish. I wish alberta was more proactive and have more lakes with limits like snipe either under 63 or under 75cm for retention. I guess there are too many of us though and as a fisheries biologist expressed to me, Alberta anglers are like vacuums. If you give them a slot size they will vacuum out that slot.

[cube]

Originally Posted by lochness

In order to keep pike, it has to be longer than 75cm. Most other lake, 63cm.
I wonder what is going on there, why 75cm?

It is an attempt to stop the total collapse of the pike population in that lake. In just about any lake where they have brought in management for walleye the pike populations have been hit hard. In Lac La biche specifically if you look at the FWIN results the pike population has dropped to less than half of what it once was and had it continued the breeding population in that lake would not have been sustainable.

You can see an example of this on pigeon lake were the pike population collapsed then they put the 100 cm min size limit. Effectively giving a zero retainment limit for that lake (as your chances of catching a 100 cm pike now are very very close to zero while before was quit common).

Even if you look at Brandon’s pike they look quite skinny as compared to what pike in that lake used to look like before the great walleye experiment.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by cube

It is an attempt to stop the total collapse of the pike population in that lake. In just about any lake where they have brought in management for walleye the pike populations have been hit hard. In Lac La biche specifically if you look at the FWIN results the pike population has dropped to less than half of what it once was and had it continued the breeding population in that lake would not have been sustainable.

You can see an example of this on pigeon lake were the pike population collapsed then they put the 100 cm min size limit. Effectively giving a zero retainment limit for that lake (as your chances of catching a 100 cm pike now are very very close to zero while before was quit common).

Even if you look at Brandon’s pike they look quite skinny as compared to what pike in that lake used to look like before the great walleye experiment.

Yeah, the first thing I noticed was the big heads. The size of the head in relation to the body is a pretty good indicator on how the pike are doing. A small head means theres lots of food and they're growing fast, a big head means they're growing slow. Some nice looking pike there regardless.