I don’t know if anyone else is aware of this situation but I heard the story on National Public Radio yesterday evening on the way to work. It seems that in CA. Davis Lake has a population of Pike that have eaten all the native trout. No one knows how the Pike got there but there was an attempt to kill them about a year and a half ago, but it failed. This time they will kill everything with gills, then restock the lake after the kill is over.
Regarding Lake Davis the danger is that the pike will escape into the Sacramento River Delta and then you can kiss that fishery goodbye. Pike are voracious predators and eat anything that swims including each other.
THe pike were seeded by jerks, the same kind of idiots who have introduced lmb to Crane Prairie and Davis Lake here in Oregon.
Whats so wrong with pike that they need to be killed off for doing as they are meant to do naturally?..Penns Creek suports a healthy population of toothy fishes and I sure hope it continues too. trout are a favorite food for the species, wish we had a good Pike lake here! or trout lake for that matter…None of the local lakes are of cold enough nature to support trout.
On the NPR story they interviewed a lady that used to run a hamburger stand or at least that’s what she called it. She was saying that since the trout are gone the fishermen are gone too.
I understand them wanting to kill them before they get into any of the neighboring tributaries but I would think electric shock would be a better solution than killing everything that lives in the lake. They said in the story that even the bugs would be affected. I just hope they’ve thought this thing through.
Lakes in Oregon are managed for whatever fish the State chooses. IF someone takes it on them self to introduce a non native fish, it can be catastrophic, as in the case of Diamond Lake in southern Oregon. Diamond’s famous trout fishing DIED, FOR YEARS! At the time, THE MOST popular fishing Lake in Oregon. Here is another illustration; We hiked around Diamond Lake a few yrs ago and we came upon a Campground…And the ONLY inhabitants were ONE trailer, The Camp Host. Hundreds of Empty Camp Sites All because some LAW BREAKER(S) introduced Chub to Diamond.
So if you follow regulations, like a decent human being, then we don’t have these problems. READ the Report on the Rotenone chemical that will be used to kill the Pike. This chemical is NOT Agent Orange!, It suffocates the Pike and they can’t breath anymore. Rotenone is temporary!
People just can’t leave ANYTHING alone! Are their brains so much MUSH they can’t transport their butts to a PIKE LAKE???
Doug
They do know how the pike got there,A IDIOT! smuggled them in and planted them! :? :? :?
They did it many times and they soon multiplied!
DFG has caught many idiots trying to put more in and some trying to take them out which they cannot do.
They are killing all the rainbows is what the problem is, and they were never intended to be in Davis lake,They are ruining the fantastic fishery.
Now they want to kill everything and start over which will cost BOOCKOO bucks to do.
BUT! Idiot’s have threatened to replant the pike in Davis once again when and after the DFG struggles to plant all the nice trout back in there…That is ridiculous!
I have never even fished Davis lake,But wanted to for the trout it contains. Now it will have to wait because there isn’t many left. On the other hand I may go anyway to check out the toothy creatures that it now has,And maybe catch one…
I did not read panmans link, so if this is repeat info, sorry.
Let me see if I got a handle on this…The fear is for neighboring Sac. River System…But if this is close by…whats to say these same ppl have not already made that happen? I doubt they’d stop at just one location…I think it’ll just be a waste of tax payers money and the circle will just need to be repeated as soon as everyone’s thinking they’ve got it under control and things back where the money grabbers want it…Pretty sad for everyone …
I recall the previous attempt involved several procedures, including electrofishing. At 80,000 acre ft and a shoreline of some 30 miles, I don’t know how realistic electrofishing really is.
Realize how critical the Sacramento R system is to Pacific salmon populations, the commercial fishing industry, and the sportfishing biz; that’s huge to the economy and to the future of salmon, shad, steelhead and striped bass populations. A big chunk of our tax dollars and CA DFG resources have gone into protecting and sustaining the Sacramento. Any effort to stop invasive, non-native species from damaging the Sacramento is time and money well allocated. In comparison to other spending, rotenone and cleanup amounts to pocket change.
This is actually the 2nd time that they’ve had to poison the lake. The first time the pike were killed off it worked for 2 years. The lake was apparently free of Northern Pike for that time. Then they started to show up again.
As was mentioned before, The pike were apparently stocked by some private citizen who’s decided for himself that they wanted to fish for Northern Pike.
The poison will actually kill off the entire fish stock of the lake. The lake will be restocked with quite a bit of trout and bass so that anglers will have fish to catch and so the eco-system can be re-built.
I noticed that the fishing regulations book for California state that if ANY northern pike is caught you MUST kill it by cutting off the head and then report the capture to the local fish and game warden. These fish are at the top of the food chain in the lake and will eat anything that swims. The Fish and Game Department is doing everything they can to keep this introduced fish from decimating our trout, bass, and salmon fisheries.
I find it a bit frustrating that a private citizen has planted those pike. Everything that the Fish and Game department tries to do is limited by funds. When they have to spend time and money to do something like this it waste a lot of dollars that we paid for with our taxes and license fees that could be put to better use. It’s too bad that they have to spend that money undoing the willful damage done by inconsiderate and selfish people.
Electroshock unfortunately won’t get all the pike. Leave a male and a female and they WILL return. There are a number of fine lakes in Colorado that have been very adversely affected by the bucket brigades introduction of Northern Pike. I would suggest that the better use of the electroshock equipment might be on the “idiots” who think they have a right to transplant fish any place they like.
Another thing relating to the DFG limited by funds,The money that is spent Taking out these Northern pike is taking away from the stocking program for in the city fishing and other lakes that get stocked with trout. This is taking away the bigger plants that they would do for the in the city lakes and other fisheries! That means that more and more kids will not be able to try fishing or not get hooked on it becasue they did not catch a fish! Think about it, That means more kids in gangs and a higher death rate. That might be a little overboard, But you get my drift. :shock:
