Removal of Pike Needed or Not

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Angler Dangler
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Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Angler Dangler »

Hi all,

I have fished my local since was a kid, my local contained most common course fish but no pike. I moved away from the area and have recently returned and am now fishing my local again. It now contains pike, apparently they were added about 8 years ago, not with consent. The fishing it still pretty good but it appears that the pond is overun with pike, mainly jack's... This being a nuisance to some silverfish anglers. Word has it that the bailiff there wants the pike numbers down and apparently anything below 4lb should be taken out. Don't get me wrong I'm a catch and release guy and would not remove any fish. What I do wonder is, is it a good idea to remove such fish or to leave the water to sort itself out... I maybe wrong but I thought the best thing for controlling pike numbers are other pike.

I appreciate this is a controversial subject and am not looking to get into any form of slanging match with anyone I just wonder what impact pike numbers have on fisheries as I don't agree with removing of fish,

Thanks
Kev Berry

Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Kev Berry »

Angler Dangler wrote: Thu Sep 07 2017 17:18 -
Hi all,

I have fished my local since was a kid, my local contained most common course fish but no pike. I moved away from the area and have recently returned and am now fishing my local again. It now contains pike, apparently they were added about 8 years ago, not with consent. The fishing it still pretty good but it appears that the pond is overun with pike, mainly jack's... This being a nuisance to some silverfish anglers. Word has it that the bailiff there wants the pike numbers down and apparently anything below 4lb should be taken out. Don't get me wrong I'm a catch and release guy and would not remove any fish. What I do wonder is, is it a good idea to remove such fish or to leave the water to sort itself out... I maybe wrong but I thought the best thing for controlling pike numbers are other pike.

I appreciate this is a controversial subject and am not looking to get into any form of slanging match with anyone I just wonder what impact pike numbers have on fisheries as I don't agree with removing of fish,

Thanks
best leave it alone ---I suspect that being overrun with small pike the fiddling hands of the match men have already been removing pike and that will mean EVERY pike they get their hands on
Angler Dangler
Gudgeon
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Angler Dangler »

You could well be right, I'm a believer that 'if u want to remove them u need to catch them' as I Always return them, pike are my sport and the reason I now love the venue. It would gut me to see one clonked, all in all I assume the food chain would balance itself ?
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Andrew
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Andrew »

in theory what the owner has in mind could work by removal of small pike only. it's believed that the removal of bigger pike is what causes issues with too many feckin jacks :laughs:

kinda like trying to mature a water quickly. in theory.
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Angler Dangler »

Andrew Croft wrote: Thu Sep 07 2017 21:03 -
in theory what the owner has in mind could work by removal of small pike only. it's believed that the removal of bigger pike is what causes issues with too many feckin jacks :laughs:

kinda like trying to mature a water quickly. in theory.
Cheers Andrew :thanks:
BillCollins
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by BillCollins »

If it's just a small lake then it's very easy to screw things up. It would probably have just a handful of bigger pike which would keep the small ones in check, if some match types have bashed a few bigger ones it can really upset things very quickly. If left alone they will sort themselves out.
Marcraft are for queers.
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alan behenna
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by alan behenna »

As Bill said above.............

It "sounds" as though the present "problem" may well have been actually caused by the "silverfish club anglers" themselves. If there has been the practise of killing any/all large/larger Pike that have come out in the last couple of years...........look no further. It's the jacks that need thinning, normally done by the larger specimens, in a natural population.

:roll:
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Mike J
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Mike J »

Exactly as Bill said above.

Leave the place alone and nature will do the rest.

But your place could easily be mine.
The previous owner had a few pike introduced to thin down the hoards of mini rudd (which he had stocked) then he was plagued with jack attacks so set about killing all the jacks and dumping bucket loads of rudd in the nearby stream. This didn't work so he introduced perch and the place got overun by 3inchers.
New owner and forward 9 years with no fish removals and its slowly balancing itself out, very few pike, some nice roach/rudd hybrids, a few good perch, tench and carp, even some bream have appeared (?) making it a nice place to spend a summers afternoon.
Completely overhung by trees so no black marauders, the perfect underwater nature reserve in fact.
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Duncan Holmes
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Duncan Holmes »

Never ever mess with predator populations. I have yet to see a single example of this making things better on a fishery, but plenty of examples of it going bad.
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thisonesmine
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by thisonesmine »

Every time we're piking on one of the club waters we fish, and the bailiff shows up, it's always the same question "Do you think there's too many pike in here".
There's a good head of silver fish, tench, carp and bream, so what's the problem?
Apparently, the committee, who are all matchmen, want the pike out of the main pond.
They fish the match pond, where the pike were removed years ago, and the canal.

Why is it a lot of 'Committee's' are against pike?

If they get their way, I know of 5 anglers who will be leaving the club,
Not many, but £200 to a small club is a lot.
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AndyLarkins
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by AndyLarkins »

It's always worth supplying Angling Club committees / Fishery Managers with the following information for their perusal...

from The Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain... "Pike In Your Waters"....

https://pacgb.com/wpd/wp-content/upload ... waters.pdf

Leon Roskilly also wrote a very good article "The Case for Pike" on AnglerlsNet. many years ago...

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/articles/co ... _for_pike/

A well worded letter/email expressing your concerns is the way forward... just don't go throwing f***s about, or you'll get their backs-up *straightaway! :rtfm:

(*last resort face)
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Effects
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Re: Removal of Pike Needed or Not

Post by Effects »

Have seen a couple of small waters in Alaska that seem to have self sustaining pike populations.
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