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Damned Pike


severus

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Interesting story in Friday's USA Today edition about a California trout lake that had pike stocked into it illegally. Pike are pretty efficient predators, as most of you already know, so putting them in Lake Davis is almost guaranteed to wipe out the trout. They're about to poison the lake for the second time - the first attempt didn't work - but only time will tell if they're successful or not. Do they ever do this sort of thing in the UK, to rid a body of water of non-native species?

 

STORY

 

lake-davisx-large.jpg

Be good and you will be lonely.
~ Mark Twain

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Yep, they have done that (and will continue to do it) to get rid of Top Mouth Gudgeon from some of our lakes....

John S

Quanti Canicula Ille In Fenestra

 

Species caught in 2017 Common Ash, Hawthorn, Hazel, Scots Pine, White Willow.

Species caught in 2016: Alder, Blackthorn, Common Ash, Crab Apple, Left Earlobe, Pedunculate Oak, Rock Whitebeam, Scots Pine, Smooth-leaved Elm, Swan, Wayfaring tree.

Species caught in 2015: Ash, Bird Cherry, Black-Headed Gull, Common Hazel, Common Whitebeam, Elder, Field Maple, Gorse, Puma, Sessile Oak, White Willow.

Species caught in 2014: Big Angry Man's Ear, Blackthorn, Common Ash, Common Whitebeam, Downy Birch, European Beech, European Holly, Hawthorn, Hazel, Scots Pine, Wych Elm.
Species caught in 2013: Beech, Elder, Hawthorn, Oak, Right Earlobe, Scots Pine.

Species caught in 2012: Ash, Aspen, Beech, Big Nasty Stinging Nettle, Birch, Copper Beech, Grey Willow, Holly, Hazel, Oak, Wasp Nest (that was a really bad day), White Poplar.
Species caught in 2011: Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Elder, Fir, Hawthorn, Horse Chestnut, Oak, Passing Dog, Rowan, Sycamore, Willow.
Species caught in 2010: Ash, Beech, Birch, Elder, Elm, Gorse, Mullberry, Oak, Poplar, Rowan, Sloe, Willow, Yew.

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so putting them in Lake Davis is almost guaranteed to wipe out the trout

 

Errr - isn't putting in poison going to do the same thing only faster?

 

Pike are basically shallow water preds to maybe 20-30 feet. Trout like conditions that don't suit pike. I'd say that if left alone, the lake would reach some sort of new natural balance whereas poisoning will make sure that does not happen and it will only need a very few pike to survive the treatment to have the problem arise again after CA spends big money killing the fish then stocking with new ones.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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I have read where US authorities even use explosives to rid waters of pike, see:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lakedavis/det_cord/appendixa.html

 

Apparently dynamite works well in certain cases:

During the 20-day test, 12,707 longnose gar weighing a total of 47,142.3 pounds were removed using only 7 cases of dynamite. The total number of game fish killed during the operation was 1,197, weighing a total of 215.5 pounds.

 

Brings back a few memories. Back in my salad days when I was young and foolish I acquired a gross of "Tijuana TNT", aka M-80 firecrackers. One day while at a small lake known to have a large population of goldfish I taped one to a rock, lit it, and tossed it into the middle. CRACK! No wake or disturbance, but after a minute many large goldfish floated to the surface, belly up. I know, I know, it was wrong. But I too have done silly things in the past. :unsure:

Edited by severus

Be good and you will be lonely.
~ Mark Twain

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the most stupid statement ive read in all the times ive been an angler: so putting them in Lake Davis is almost guaranteed to wipe out the trout.

 

if pike are so devistating to a water as it appears the keepers of lake davis have come across then why is my canal not void of fish or even a few trout fisheries ive visited been wiped out.

 

thing is i believe pike can only benefit the waters they inhabit clearing it of the weak and diseased trout and other species.

 

one thing i can see happening to lake davis is that once they have tried to kill the pike and some survive what about after they have spawned the pike population is going to be full of jacks who will basicly go after anything that moves unlike your older mature pike that keep the brats in check.

Owner of Tacklesack.co.uk


Moderator at The-Pikers-Pit.co.uk

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Left to themselves, pike will assume a stable prey/predator relationship of around 10% of the total fish biomass.

 

Try to mess with it and it is likely that they will form a higher ratio comprised of younger, hungrier fish.

 

Once messed with, only patience waiting for the eventual re-establishment of a more natural mature population structure will lesson the problems caused by hordes of hungry jacks.

 

Keep messing with it, and it only gets worse.

 

See http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/Coarse-Fishing...e_for_pike.html

 

 

Unfortunately it is not in the nature of managers facing a problem to exercise patience, messing is the more instinctive and natural trait of 'managers'.

Edited by Leon Roskilly

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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