Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations 31.5 Inch

Ice fishing Northern Pike by Steve on Bremer Pond.

It appears that life truly is good on Bremer Pond!

Were you fishing for NP, or did that one get hooked up while fishing for another species?

Steve was fishing with a small Fathead minnow for Black Crappie. This one is going to the fish cooker. We remove any NP under 36 inches to avoid the hammer handle syndrome.

How will you prepare this pike for eating?

A hammer that this Pike was a handle for would take John Henry to manage.

I wonder if anybody has ever tried to feed train N Pike, Muskie, or Tiger Muskie.

Here is how :



Hammer handles are the little ones, or course. No one wants a pond with little NP snapping at anything that moves. The smallest ones (like we have in the River next to us) will bite on a lure with the hook removed. You can barely remove them from the hook less lure because of the aggression built into them.

At the price of any meat it would be an expensive proposition. They want meat, blood and guts, not your normal fish food.

Very nice...!!!

I wasn't asking so much as how you fillet them, but how you would cook them.

I could have been more clear.

Our favorite here is baked with no coating in butter with a dash of salt and even less of a dash of pepper. These are lightly flavored fillets so don't cover the flavor with breading or.....

Sounds awesome.

Well done Dwight

Very nice!

Okay Mr. Dwight - Do you think you are getting northern pike recruitment in your pond which is why you remove those under 36". How often do anglers catch one of those toothy, slippery, wiggly, critters that you have to avoid 'hammer handle syndrome' ? Although since you have the smaller ones in the adjacent river, whenever you see a need for more small fish harvest you can fairly easily selectively 'invite' some of them in for a visit.

I'm gonna try that dipping sause for fried fish - sounds real tasty.

Pike is delicious! I'll have to try the back fillet method in the video. We do a Canada trip almost every year so we are usually keeping walleyes instead of pike.

I have filleted the pike, left the skin on. Removed the rib bones, cut the meat vertically in 1/4" thick slices from backbone to skin, but not through the skin, then cooked in hot oil. The hot oil seems to dissolve the "Y" bones.

I'd try the way you normally would cook the pike, but try one piece like that and see how it turns out.

Doctor Bill,

I don't think there is recruitment, but I don't want any either. The smallest has been around 30 inches and it went to the river because I didn't have time to deal with it on that hot summer day. By removing any 36 and under I hope to just "keep" a few trophy sized ones around.

There aren't many NP caught, just few each year.

I have seen Bald Eagles drop a fish in the pond several times, so perhaps that is where the under 36's are coming from. Maybe those birds are using the pond as their personal holding tank for future meals? More likely they are heavy and the birds loose control of them during flyovers.

Did I ever tell you about the day there was a Bald Eagle sitting by our driveway? He must have been stunned getting hit by a passing vehicle. At the time I thought he was injured. What to do? Went in the house and got him a big chunk of summer sausage to maybe help him recover. I handed the sausage to him and he took it with his beak and started chowing it down. After watching the sheer eating ability of that eagle I went back to the house to call the Veterinarian for some assistance in what further could be done to save him. As I turned away, he squawked and flew off in seemingly good condition. I assume his squawk was a thank you!

Sorry about that! I have a lot of eagle stories floating around in my old geezer brain.

I think there is a thread somewhere on this forum about it.

The Stick caught this 14.5" Black Crappie yesterday afternoon during the Daytona 500.

Nice fish !!!