State Stocking Pike to kill small bass

[fishizzle]

Do any other states do this?

I disagree with the program

The purpose is to decrease the amount of under 12" bass so others can grow bigger.  Its called a Big Bass Management Lake.

What happens when the pike hit 40"?

Do you think they eat only 10" bass?

Do they think Pike don't eat the same food Bass eat?

Sounds like introducing Pike is gonna backfire

Whats your opinion?

[Guest muddy]

I know of a lake in PA they did this in. We have big bass programs here also. The local guys would catch the Pike and throw them on shore, wiped em out! They were those Muskie/Pike hybirds called Tiger Muskies and they could not reproduce. Guess the locals didnt think much of the state plan ;D

[fishizzle]

Not sure if ours in Connecticut reproduce - I think they do

[Perfect Hook Set]

Please give us more info

The purpose is to decrease the amount of under 12" bass so others can grow bigger.

Which is a smart idea, a couple years ago most tackle shops and the fish and game were telling people to keep those smaller fish.

The smaller fish were taking up too mcuh area/eating most of the bait fish and craw fish thus killing off bigger bass and not alowing them to grow.

Its called a Big Bass Management Lake.

Which most just have a sign and are not very protected or "Managed."

These lakes should be a pollution free zone.

What happens when the pike hit 40"?

The may not depending on the size of the lake/pray

What happens well they SHOULD move the fish to a BIG lake

Do you think they eat only 10" bass?

No

Though I am sure they wouldn't mind gulping up a school of 10in bass the fight with a larger bass.

That may also depend on the season (water temp etc)

Below came from a member from another forum

CT's stocking program for lakes comes from natural reproduction, about 75% of the stocked fish are from the CT river. The other 25% of stockies are from bantam lake (the bantam river feeds in and is believed to be the spawning area)

This straight from 2 CT DEP Interns. Stockies go into Mansfiled hollow and Winchester lake. They take a LARGE number of fish from the back waters of the CT river. BIG numbers of fry are grown out and dumped into the above lakes in early fall at 8-12inches.

Now Beseck lake, my home water if you will, is not stocked by the state. Breeding size fish were illegally stocked from the river by an old crazy guy that lives on the lake. The fish were thought to have died off BIG time. I missed one on a slammer this summer and caught a solid fish last year through the ice. This year the recruitment of YOY (young of year) fish is HUGE. The DEP is set to shock survey the lake this spring and decide if the population is spawning/wether to stock said lake.

Pike have been introduced into a ton of lakes in Maine with a ton of different bottom types and everything scott and seem to be reproducing.

Connecticut has an interesting pike management program. They manipulate marshes to get reproduction in Bantam and Haddam Meadows on the Ct River.

http://www.ct.gov/dEP/cwp/view.asp?a=2696&...devNav_GID=1632

http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/mhl/mhlnat3.htm

[Guest muddy]

It seems that slots are a better way to manage a lot of the lakes. Inherently when you introduce a new species it throws things out of wack a lot. At Mauch Chunk we have a 15 inch minimum. While a lot of us Cand R many fish for meat and what we have is an abundance of 14 inch Bass. The walleye guys are more wary of the possibility of Tiger Muskies coming to our lake as are the perch and bluegill fishermman as Mauch Chunk is one of the finest pan fish lakes in the Commonwealth

[ww2farmer]

Pike are much more efficent at thinning out small bass than humans. All the lakes here in WNY have pike in them, and our bass populations are fine, if not excelling. You won't see an bass with long skinny bodys and big heads around here, infact our 12" fish are COMMENLY over 1.5lb's. Other places I have been a 12" fish is less than a pound. The adult pike will eat plenty of small bass..............so what, if you like catching small bass then I can see this as a problem.

[Perfect Hook Set]

Hey Pike are fun to catch anyway so that could be a plus

[hamer08]

I fish several lakes that actively manage LMB and muskies. I haven't noticed any problems. It seems lakes that try to have LMB, muskie and walleye have much less LMB. I think too many bass stunt the populations. I know lakes you can catch 4"-10" LMB on every other cast, but no big mamas. Likewise, lakes that have good populations of 2-4 lbers have much less bass under 12". I wouldn't worry too much, the worst case is you'll start catching pike that can eat a 10" bass. I don't consider that a big problem.

[jrhennecke]

It just seems that when the government starts doing projects like this there is a good likelyhood something is going to get messed up.  The guys that seem to fish water with both species though don't seem too concerned so maybe it will be ok.

[fishizzle]

A DEP guy on Patchaug interviewed us on our day of fishing and what we thought of the program.

Mansfield Hollow is the other lake that has a small fish problem.

Its full of 11 inch bass (no exactly good in tourneys)

Mansfield Hollow has had pike a long time and still the bass are short.

The pike have reached 40".

Point being the program isn't working.

The lake is now titled Trophy Pike Lake.

To my knowledge people don't keep small bass.

[smallieking]

one of the lakes i fished had a proposal to do this but it fell through  even though i hate it  there are some benefits   like pike can only kill small bass so it will higher the avaible food in a lake which can be eaten by bigger bass   so the big bass in the lake will hit more often and more aggresive and they will become alot bigger   the only reason the pike wasnt stock was because there was already pike and musky in the lake  and i must say they dont seem to bother the bass too much  they go after the trout in the lake   that and its the best bass lake in this area actually compared to other lakes that doesnt have any pike or musky in it so i really dont know  

[Perfect Hook Set]

A DEP guy on Patchaug interviewed us on our day of fishing and what we thought of the program.

Mansfield Hollow is the other lake that has a small fish problem.

Its full of 11 inch bass (no exactly good in tourneys)

Mansfield Hollow has had pike a long time and still the bass are short.

The pike have reached 40".

Point being the program isn't working.

The lake is now titled Trophy Pike Lake.

To my knowledge people don't keep small bass.

I am confused

In general do you want an over load of small Bass in the lake

or

Would you like to see it even out and have a higher population of larger Bass

[Tin]

Yup, and Pike have not gone anything good to it imo. There are still tons of small bass and the smallie population has declined. Mansfield Hollow will probably go the same way. They should be testing this idea in lakes like Wyassup where there are TONS of shorts.

But I believe RI did this in Johnson's Pond a few years back. Have not seen a difference.

[Guest muddy]

Hey Pike are fun to catch anyway so that could be a plus

I AM WITH YOU 100% especially on top waters! and last year I hooked ( did not land) my first muskie. I found it is time to take advantage of some of the other Northern Species I have avoided here.

[RoLo]

What happens when the pike hit 40"?

You forget about bass, and break out the big stuff

Roger

[Pond Hopper]

Hey Pike are fun to catch anyway so that could be a plus

I AM WITH YOU 100% especially on top waters! and last year I hooked ( did not land) my first muskie. I found it is time to take advantage of some of the other Northern Species I have avoided here.

Right on muddy, I agree with Rolo if I had pike or musky fishing close by and 40 inch fish I would not be bass fishing near as much.  They are a violent, strong fish.    And if you learn to clean a pike the proper way they are fantastic table fare.

[fishizzle]

I lose alot of money to pike and pickeral

Can't fish for bass with a steel leader

[Tokyo Tony]

Perfect Hookset - I LOVE Beseck Lake! There are some fine fish in there, and I absolutely love fishing the multitude of docks on that pond (it really sucks when the water's low though). Fall 2006, maybe early November, my brother actually caught a little pike in there, about 4 pounds. I had no idea that lake had them, but they're in there. Beseck is full of bass in the 3-5 pound class (really good for a small lake in CT). Love it.

Tin - I'd love to see them throw a bunch of pike into Wyassup. I've only fished one other lake in my life that has so many dinks.

[Paul Roberts]

I'd noticed that some of the best small bass waters I've fished for larger bass, had pike, or in one case pickeral, in them. And I'd assumed it had to do with pike keeping bluegills and small bass in check, allowing surviving bass better growth.

I currently live in Colorado and there is a lake here with largemouths WAY above the norm in size. It has produced many bass over 7lbs, and even a 13-1/2lb that surpassed the state record by 2 lbs and was released. This lake too has pike, and some big ones.

I'd always wondered whether pike could be a good management tool for large bass fisheries in some circumstances. Many managers argue, though, that most anglers would not be happy with large bass management because such waters often result in fewer smaller bass that would offer "numbers" fishing -the type most anglers like.

[Jeff H]

We had an area lake stocked with Musky a number of years ago.  Prior to this, the lake had an awesome bass fishery and it would take a 3lb average to get into the money, better than that to win. There was no dink problem here.  The lake eventually became a well known Musky lake and the bass fishin' went right into the sewer.  Those Musky took over the lake and they got BIG in a hurry.  I got a 15lb'er in my last bass tourney on that lake it wasn't even considered big since the lake putting out a lot of 25 lb fish.  I was getting "bit off" under docks all day.  Haven't been on that lake in 10 years now.  

I hate "gators" 8-)  Every lake I fish has gators in it and they help me keep GMAN pouring lead.  I'm gonna get me a "bang stick" instead of a net.

[jwo1124]

Seems ridiculous. Once all the big bass eventually die, and the pike eat all the majority of the small bass, there will be a very small bass population in the lake. Then locals will start complaining that they have been going out three or four times a week and getting skunked or only having one or two fish days. I think management is a gift and a curse. Its great to have knowledgable professionals that can help a lake or river or any body of water thrive and maintain a healthy productive abundant ecosystem, but other times people get carried away and try to play God and end up F'ing everything up.

I think people should do just what is needed and stop letting greed get in the way and understand that mother nature did not intend for lakes to be full  of BIG BASS. What's the fun in catching a big bass when every and all bass in the lake are big? There will be nothing special about catching a 6lb bass, since every bass you catch is 6 lbs. and once all the bass get to be 10 lbs, there will be nothing special in catching a 10 lb. bass.

Don't get me wrong, it looks good on paper, but why mess with nature. Do the bare minimum to make sure the habitats are healthy and productive, and be happy with what you have.

[jwo1124]

One more thought, Once all the bass are huge and glutonous, they are going to need large amounts of food to survive. They are either going to Destroy the lower throphic level and wipe out all the prey(minnows, shad, crawfish etc.) This will result in them either starving or evolving to prey on other gamefish like sunfish, crappie, or perch, thus eliminating the population of those gamefish. or 2.) become cannabalistic and wipe out all the newly spawned fry doing further damage to the bass population. I hate just to be a skeptic about this, but these are serious and probable consiquences

[hamer08]

To be fair, most of the water we fish is man-made impoundments. So this don't have alot to do with nature or playing god.  These are managed lakes with different stockings, creel limits, slot limits, etc. I think I would be happy the lake was being actively managed by a fish biologist with trophy bass as a goal. Maybe you can email the fish biologist involved with the project and ask him for additional references on Pike/bass managment to ease your concerns.

[Guest muddy]

Hamer08. in some parts of the country, and my own prefreance is we do fish natural lakes. Upstate NY and Minn , Misch , there are many more natural lakes than man made to fish, not to mention the rivers 8-)

[Perfect Hook Set]

Seems ridiculous. Once all the big bass eventually die, and the pike eat all the majority of the small bass, there will be a very small bass population in the lake. Then locals will start complaining that they have been going out three or four times a week and getting skunked or only having one or two fish days. I think management is a gift and a curse. Its great to have knowledgable professionals that can help a lake or river or any body of water thrive and maintain a healthy productive abundant ecosystem, but other times people get carried away and try to play God and end up F'ing everything up.

I think people should do just what is needed and stop letting greed get in the way and understand that mother nature did not intend for lakes to be full  of BIG BASS. What's the fun in catching a big bass when every and all bass in the lake are big? There will be nothing special about catching a 6lb bass, since every bass you catch is 6 lbs. and once all the bass get to be 10 lbs, there will be nothing special in catching a 10 lb. bass.

Don't get me wrong, it looks good on paper, but why mess with nature. Do the bare minimum to make sure the habitats are healthy and productive, and be happy with what you have.

I agree with you on the middle paragraph, after catching a number of small bass and then hooking into 6lber I go crazy which makes it fun.

Though since I never had a day of catching nothing but, 6lb bass I cannot say it wouldn't be fun any more...

Has anyone else have a "who can catch more bass" contest with there friends...?

Muddy... Most waters here especially in my area are man made and most of them have the purpose of supplying water or energy.