In a lot of our small lakes the pike tend to over populate and stunt.
They also seem to eat bullhead and any thing else they can get in their mouths. I have heard stories of people findin young ducks and full grown rattle snakes in their bellies. Not to mention other large fish.
I have heard some talk on the forum that it is hard for NP to reproduce in the pond environment but that is not the case in north and south dakota. Our ponds get low and grass grows on the bottom then the lake is flooded and everything is under water the next. Making perfect np spawning habitat.
Real serious np fishermen will watch the wet years on the missouri river and mark them in their planner (meaning the pike had a good spawn) and as that year class matures they will go fish it especially for the spring bite. Lake Sharpe has a good pike population lake Ohae np pop is maturing. I have no report on ND stretch of the missouri river but devils lake has a great np pop and upcoming generations. Fort Peck has a mature population too.
A local lake, orman dam, Is an irrigation lake with a full pool of 8000 surface acres but can make its way down to 3000 on dry years. The lake is generally "dry" in the spring and has been for many years. The last couple years have been very wet and np are starting to make an appearance in the lake again.
Another interesting fact is wyo state only had two lakes with np until recently.
The small pond I work with that has np also has lmb and the lmb would take over if a person would let them. I see other people's management and the np have no predators in a lake and they all grow into snakes.
Bill d. I think there fear is the np will over populate which can happen. Also they are not a kid friendly fish. A kids fingers in a mouth with 500 teeth is not as good of a memory builder as the kid with bg or trout.also the y bone makes them hard to skin and many people have served them with too many bones. We are going to can a batch this year.
I have never caught a muskie, are they as slimy as a pike?
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/08/15 08:06 AM. Reason: spelling edit
