Another topic I brought up at the DOW meeting was pike at Spinney, not only does the DOW want you to harvest all pike caught there they want you to harvest all pike from 11-mile as well.
The reasons they gave was pike can eat a trout 1/2 its size, the trout they stock at Spinney are 12-15 inches and they stock when pike metabolism is low so pike are less likely to eat them. By time pike are back to normal these trout should have grown to 15-18 inches making the pike that can eat them 30-36 inches. There are pike in there that big just not as many that is why trout are doing ok there. Since there isnt any ice fishing at Spinney these trout make it threw the winter. However at 11-mile its different the ice fisherman nail these trout left and right so it makes no sense to stock that large of trout there. They have to stock smaller ones, the DOW estimates that the pike eat 400$ worth of trout each (I think they said a month not forsure on that).
I think selective harvesting of these pike are the way to go, I dont think the DOW would support this but harvesting say 15-30" only would give trout of 8-15" a break. Knowing that you wont catch every pike between that size in the lake there should still be lunkers coming up and the die hard catch and release people will still put them back. I'm not a big fish eater so I usually release all my fish unless I'm camping or with someone who wants to keep them but I'm guessing the larger fish wont taste as good anyways.
What are your views on this?
The reasons they gave was pike can eat a trout 1/2 its size, the trout they stock at Spinney are 12-15 inches and they stock when pike metabolism is low so pike are less likely to eat them. By time pike are back to normal these trout should have grown to 15-18 inches making the pike that can eat them 30-36 inches. There are pike in there that big just not as many that is why trout are doing ok there. Since there isnt any ice fishing at Spinney these trout make it threw the winter. However at 11-mile its different the ice fisherman nail these trout left and right so it makes no sense to stock that large of trout there. They have to stock smaller ones, the DOW estimates that the pike eat 400$ worth of trout each (I think they said a month not forsure on that).
I think selective harvesting of these pike are the way to go, I dont think the DOW would support this but harvesting say 15-30" only would give trout of 8-15" a break. Knowing that you wont catch every pike between that size in the lake there should still be lunkers coming up and the die hard catch and release people will still put them back. I'm not a big fish eater so I usually release all my fish unless I'm camping or with someone who wants to keep them but I'm guessing the larger fish wont taste as good anyways.
What are your views on this?