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Do you ever see them? I put a 21" northern in my pond this spring and have not seen it since. My friend put several in a 2 acre pond and has never seen his again either. I am assuming that my water is too warm at the surface and my NP is cruising at about 8 feet of water munching on my YP until the weather gets cooler.

I thought I would see the NP in the mornings and evenings skimming the water as I have seen them do in lakes. No such luck so far. He could be dead but I dont think he is


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 Originally Posted By: rexcramer
Do you ever see them? I put a 21" northern in my pond this spring and have not seen it since. My friend put several in a 2 acre pond and has never seen his again either. I am assuming that my water is too warm at the surface and my NP is cruising at about 8 feet of water munching on my YP until the weather gets cooler.

I thought I would see the NP in the mornings and evenings skimming the water as I have seen them do in lakes. No such luck so far. He could be dead but I dont think he is


The only one that I know of here that has northern in his pond is Dwight so you might not get many responses Rex.


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Why not throw a small spinner around the weeds for a while? Time to find out! If you dont catch him you'll mor ethan likely see him chase the bait


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I've never played with pure northerns but I have played with tigers in ponds. They don't seem to be very active in the warm summer months. In VA, middle of winter if there was no ice was prime time though. Particularly a couple of warm winter days in a row... VA and MI are different worlds though. I suspect your northern is holding in the coldest highest DO water he can until the pond temps start to cool down again, if they haven't already started to. Smaller northerns are far more tolerant of warm water than are larger ones though.

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Rig up a 10 foot stick on the end of your dock with just enough heavy string dangling down to almost reach the water. Attach a very light leader with lets say 1 lb test line or less to the end of the heavy line and use a needle to attach a live bluegill or bass to the light line leader by tying a knot in the top of the fish.

Adjust the string so the bait fish can have just enough water to thrash around and create some noise. Attach a new fish everytime you head down to your dock and you will attract the beast! If the pesky green carp start getting in the habit of stealing the bait, than just keep bumping up the size of the "sacrifice" until you eventually end up with a 'trained' Northern Pike!

How cool would that be????

If that is simply too much effort, than I would suggest keeping a small bucket full of little bluegill and bass everytime you go fishing and then cut their tails off and throw them in the water from the same spot every time. Your efforts will not go unnoticed! Eventually you will find yourself fishing to feed the big fish more than fishing to catch the big fish.


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"Sacrifice"...hilarious! Sounds like a good pike detection method to me.

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Rex, I stocked 20 northern pike several years ago into a two-acre pond I was managing; I then saw neither hide nor hair of any of them for probably a year. Then one day I got to see one on the stringer of a guy fishing the pond (I released it because there was a sign posted with very clear limits stating the pike could not be kept). About a year after that I was bass fishing and hooked a large fish that cut my line within a second or two after the hookset. Somewhere around that time the pond owner told me someone caught a 36" pike...

With your pond, seeing that you only added one, I would wonder about mortality, stress from being caught, etc. It's highly possible he's just cruising around chowing down, or hanging deeper in the best DO. I would think that Nate's suggestion would be a pretty effective way to see if the pike is still in the pond.

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n8ly:

That will work! I trained the LMB a couple of years ago by catching small BG, hooking them lightly near the tail (#10 hook)and dangling them so they thrashed the water. As soon as a LMB would grab it, I'd yank the hook out quick. It got to the point that the LMB would jump up a good foot in the air to get the BG. They still hang out near me when I'm cathcing big BG. I can see them eyeng them up, then hanging around as if to say "Hey, when are you going to start catching small ones for us?"


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Thanks for the ideas. Once work slows down this fall I should have time to do a little "training".

Also since I have to remove a few LMB from the pond this fall, I will toss a few pike friendly lures out to see how he did over the summer. He sure wasnt interested in the jig and plastic grub the LMB love.

Here is a picture of him when he went in, its not a great pic


Last edited by rexcramer; 09/16/09 09:52 PM.

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Pike are pretty fish... I am sure he is liking his new home. I hope you catch him and find out, or at least see him swimming around.

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 Quote:
Do you ever see them?


We have 5 or 6 female NP in our pond. They are all 32-40 inches in length. These NP are part of our pond management schema. Since they eat like slime-pigs, they crop off a lot of the mid-range fish that would otherwise overpopulate and stunt.

The only time they are ever seen is when they are caught while angling for other species. Since the NP are large and have a nasty temperament they will mangle pretty much anything they attack lure-wise. Oddly they will bite on a 2” fathead minnow while angling for crappie through the ice. I can’t explain why they would go after such a small piece of meat other they are ticked off that something that small would dare to invade their territory. Catching a 32+ NP through the ice on 4 pound test line is a hoot, however.


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 Quote:
Since they eat like slime-pigs


This quote should be preserved for posterity somehow.

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 Originally Posted By: Walt Foreman
 Quote:
Since they eat like slime-pigs


This quote should be preserved for posterity somehow.


As a taxidermist that skins out and mounts his share of "slime pigs" I can assure you the name is well warranted. They have plenty of slime on their bodies and the skin head and fins have to be soaked in paint thinner overnight to be sure to rid them of any oils.

Don't get me wrong I think they are a neat species.


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...and the smell.... WOW!


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Nothing like those slimy hammer handles. There job in life is to tear up fishing gear.
















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I have a friend who coined the term "slime darts" for the smaller size ones. Although not as noticable in warmer waters, when angled through the ice they really have a think slime coat. I have left them on the ice to freeze and clean the next day. I take them to the bathtub to shower off the slime, and there is at least and eighth of an inch of slime covering their entire body. Must be some sort of defense mechanism or insulation against chilly waters.


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 Quote:
I take them to the bathtub to shower off the slime


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D you think a game camera could be placed where the sunny was circling under the water close to the surface ? Such that a good strike would trigger the photo ?

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Most game cameras have too slow a trigger time to actually get a picture of the pike taking the sunny...


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