Northern Pike in Lake Roosevelt

[Lucius]

I talked with a subcontractor that I work with and he informed me that he caught a Northern Pike out of Lake Roosevelt last August. Has anybody else caught a northern pike out of Lake Roosevelt (pictures would be nice)? It's only a matter of time!! Columbia River, say hello to my little friend!!!:bounce:

[Kfedka]

Never heard of this, as far as I know they only way they would get there is by a bucket biologist.

[YellowBear]

I heard of a 8 pound Pike caught out of 7-bays last year, could be the same fish.
I think its only a matter of time before we see Pike in the Columbia, if they are not there already.
Can you imagine what the fishing would be like if the Pike get into the irrigation system in the basin?
Hundreds of miles of prime Pike habitat. Might be a good trade off, they could feed well on the Carp, lol.

[Lucius]

Never heard of this, as far as I know they only way they would get there is by a bucket biologist.

Actually they traveled over the dams from the Pend Oreille River system on down to lake Roosevelt.

the pike my subcontractor caught was a dink only like 21" or so. If that is the case, then it sounds like they are spawning in there as well. I agree with you yellowbear it is only a matter of time it not already. If the pike get into the irrigation system it sounds like it would like the type of pike fishing you would encounter in North Dakota.

[Kenster]

[quote="Luciusthe pike my subcontractor caught was a dink only like 21" or so. [/quote"]

Dink? you called that (21incher) a MONSTER at the Pend last year!!! LOL!

Kenster

[Lucius]

[quote="Luciusthe pike my subcontractor caught was a dink only like 21" or so. [/quote"]

Dink? you called that (21incher) a MONSTER at the Pend last year!!! LOL!

Kenster

[/quote]

I believe it was you that called the 21" a monster last year. I was calling the 28" fish I caught a monster, but that is because that was the biggest and only fish I caught the whole trip!!

[Teal101]

I heard of a 8 pound Pike caught out of 7-bays last year, could be the same fish.
I think its only a matter of time before we see Pike in the Columbia, if they are not there already.
Can you imagine what the fishing would be like if the Pike get into the irrigation system in the basin?
Hundreds of miles of prime Pike habitat. Might be a good trade off, they could feed well on the Carp, lol.

I'd be in heaven if they did that. Although it might cause problems as all the irrigation is connected to Moses lake or potholes. I wouldn't mind seeing them in the Columbia though.

[Lucius]

......I'd be in heaven if they did that. Although it might cause problems as all the irrigation is connected to Moses lake or potholes. I wouldn't mind seeing them in the Columbia though.

Well if that ever does happen hopefully instead of killing off the whole lake they could enact a regulation that could successfully manage the pike yet protect those biggins!!! We could rely on some history lessons of the Minnesota fisheries on how to do this. I know they have enacted a slot to protect the larger fish which in turn help control the smaller "problem pike".

I hope the WDFW will enact such a rule on the only consistent pike fishier in the state, the Pend Orielle River (Box Canyon Reservoir) after they have completed their data studies this spring. I know the Northern Pike fishery is a topic of discussion at the IFPG meeting this June in Ellensburg.

Northwest success

According to Henry Drewes, regional wildlife supervisor for the DNR in Bemidji, lakes such as Sallie and Melissa near Detroit Lakes and Medicine Lake and North Twin Lake near Bemidji — all in northwestern Minnesota — have yielded larger pike in netting assessments as a result of the regulations.

In the case of Sallie, where pike 24 inches or larger have been protected since 1996, DNR test-netting surveys tallied 15 pike per net larger than 24 inches in 2004, the most recent survey. In six previous surveys before the regulation went into effect, the survey recorded only one pike per net longer than 24 inches and the total never exceeded two. And the average size, DNR data shows, went from 20.6 inches before the regulation to 25.4 in 2004.

“We’ve shown you can reduce the number of small pike,” Drewes said. “Use larger pike to control small pike and put the population in a better state of balance.”

Above is a quote from an article discussing the success of the regulation I was talking about and below is a link to the article

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... her_ID/40/

[Lucius]

i am headed over the east side here in a couple of weeks. I think I might try and see if I can tempt one of these elusive predators from the waters.

[Kfedka]

......I'd be in heaven if they did that. Although it might cause problems as all the irrigation is connected to Moses lake or potholes. I wouldn't mind seeing them in the Columbia though.

Well if that ever does happen hopefully instead of killing off the whole lake they could enact a regulation that could successfully manage the pike yet protect those biggins!!! We could rely on some history lessons of the Minnesota fisheries on how to do this. I know they have enacted a slot to protect the larger fish which in turn help control the smaller "problem pike".

I hope the WDFW will enact such a rule on the only consistent pike fishier in the state, the Pend Orielle River (Box Canyon Reservoir) after they have completed their data studies this spring. I know the Northern Pike fishery is a topic of discussion at the IFPG meeting this June in Ellensburg.

Northwest success

According to Henry Drewes, regional wildlife supervisor for the DNR in Bemidji, lakes such as Sallie and Melissa near Detroit Lakes and Medicine Lake and North Twin Lake near Bemidji — all in northwestern Minnesota — have yielded larger pike in netting assessments as a result of the regulations.

In the case of Sallie, where pike 24 inches or larger have been protected since 1996, DNR test-netting surveys tallied 15 pike per net larger than 24 inches in 2004, the most recent survey. In six previous surveys before the regulation went into effect, the survey recorded only one pike per net longer than 24 inches and the total never exceeded two. And the average size, DNR data shows, went from 20.6 inches before the regulation to 25.4 in 2004.

“We’ve shown you can reduce the number of small pike,” Drewes said. “Use larger pike to control small pike and put the population in a better state of balance.”

Above is a quote from an article discussing the success of the regulation I was talking about and below is a link to the article

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... her_ID/40/

Killing off the Lake.....are you referring to Roosevelt. If so can a body of water of that size be "killed" off?

[Teal101]

......I'd be in heaven if they did that. Although it might cause problems as all the irrigation is connected to Moses lake or potholes. I wouldn't mind seeing them in the Columbia though.

Well if that ever does happen hopefully instead of killing off the whole lake they could enact a regulation that could successfully manage the pike yet protect those biggins!!! We could rely on some history lessons of the Minnesota fisheries on how to do this. I know they have enacted a slot to protect the larger fish which in turn help control the smaller "problem pike".

I hope the WDFW will enact such a rule on the only consistent pike fishier in the state, the Pend Orielle River (Box Canyon Reservoir) after they have completed their data studies this spring. I know the Northern Pike fishery is a topic of discussion at the IFPG meeting this June in Ellensburg.

Northwest success

According to Henry Drewes, regional wildlife supervisor for the DNR in Bemidji, lakes such as Sallie and Melissa near Detroit Lakes and Medicine Lake and North Twin Lake near Bemidji — all in northwestern Minnesota — have yielded larger pike in netting assessments as a result of the regulations.

In the case of Sallie, where pike 24 inches or larger have been protected since 1996, DNR test-netting surveys tallied 15 pike per net larger than 24 inches in 2004, the most recent survey. In six previous surveys before the regulation went into effect, the survey recorded only one pike per net longer than 24 inches and the total never exceeded two. And the average size, DNR data shows, went from 20.6 inches before the regulation to 25.4 in 2004.

“We’ve shown you can reduce the number of small pike,” Drewes said. “Use larger pike to control small pike and put the population in a better state of balance.”

Above is a quote from an article discussing the success of the regulation I was talking about and below is a link to the article

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... her_ID/40/

Killing off the Lake.....are you referring to Roosevelt. If so can a body of water of that size be "killed" off?

I think hes referring to Moses and Potholes.

[Lucius]

Teal101 is right, I was referring to Moses and Potholes. You do bring up a good point though Kfedka, in that it would be nearly impossible to poison off all of Roosevelt, and the cost to attempt to do so would be ridiculous. Not only that the lake is part of the Columbia River system which I think is the main reason why they will never poison the lake or attempt too should I say.

[Nik]

Couer D' Alene is teeming with pike, out of which flows the Spokane river, which turns into Long Lake/Lake Spokane which also has a decent pike population (last 2 WA state record pike came out of there), which in turn dumps right into Lake Roosevelt. How is it surprising that there are some pike in there?

[Rosann G]

Not surprising to me.

[Lucius]

Couer D' Alene is teeming with pike, out of which flows the Spokane river, which turns into Long Lake/Lake Spokane which also has a decent pike population (last 2 WA state record pike came out of there), which in turn dumps right into Lake Roosevelt. How is it surprising that there are some pike in there?

Good point I didn't realize that long lake was that close to Roosevelt Lake. Now from what I heard Long Lake has big Pike because of Coeur D'Alene but I heard there are not that many pike at all which seems to make sense to me since you don't hear that many pike being caught out of there. Since there are not that many pike in Long Lake I was assuming that the pike in Lake Roosevelt were coming from the Pend Oreille River which is a lot further distance than long lake. Just goes to show you that you learn something new every day.

[Nik]

Couer D' Alene is teeming with pike, out of which flows the Spokane river, which turns into Long Lake/Lake Spokane which also has a decent pike population (last 2 WA state record pike came out of there), which in turn dumps right into Lake Roosevelt. How is it surprising that there are some pike in there?

Good point I didn't realize that long lake was that close to Roosevelt Lake. Now from what I heard Long Lake has big Pike because of Coeur D'Alene but I heard there are not that many pike at all which seems to make sense to me since you don't hear that many pike being caught out of there. Since there are not that many pike in Long Lake I was assuming that the pike in Lake Roosevelt were coming from the Pend Oreille River which is a lot further distance than long lake. Just goes to show you that you learn something new every day.

Yep i agree there aren't a ton of pike in Long, but they're definitely there. They're pretty much a rarity in Long though and given that Roosevelt is what, 10 times bigger than Long, it's a pretty long shot that someone caught one. I've fished Long for bass probably 100 times and I've seen one caught out there, had a couple other people tell me they caught one, and then of course heard about the state records. That's about it. If you were to go looking for pike in Roosevelt I'd certainly try the Spokane arm though for sure. There's got to be a few of them in there. I'd be more surprised that I actually caught one though, not so much that they were in there.