By Andrew Marr
This article was originally written and shared in response to many pictures of large dead pike being shown on various angler forums. It seeks to offer an informed opinion on finding the right balance between the desire to enjoy your catch for a fresh fish fry, while still taking measures to protect trophy potential and population.
A hot topic currently seems to be the much publicized issue of keeping larger pike, judging by the slew of comments and opinions surrounding the topic. As an industry professional who relies on pike, among other species to make a living, I felt a need to give some insight into a topic I’ve dealt with for many years.
First, a bit about myself, my background, and experiences in the world of pike fishing and guiding. I’m fortunate to have worked as a professional pike guide for over a decade and have worked with fisheries biologists, tracking large female pike over periods of years to track growth, re-catches etc. I’ve personally handled in the vicinity of 20k pike and over 1k in excess of 40″. I often think, how many of the pike that are included in those numbers, are the same fish, how many are the the offspring of pike I released during prior years?
I recall one season where 4 separate guests caught the same 40″ pike, over the course of a single month. The biggest pike I have ever guided at 49″x 21″, was caught the next year and hit the magical 50″ mark for a lucky angler and guide. I always felt those catches were a true testament to catch and release!
I’ve been fortunate to get to learn from, and work with some of the best pike guides, and lodge owners in North America over my career. It is through working with these individuals that I have learned, and formed an understanding of fisheries management. Additionally I Graduated in the field of Ecosystem Management. Pike and trophy pike is well within my area of expertise. The goal here is to encourage, and educate bests practices for any angler to enjoy some table fair, while also taking steps to protect our fisheries population, and trophy potential for many years to come. The best way to balance out the separate but intrinsically linked issues is through Selective Harvest of our catches.
Large pike are a treat for any angler to catch, they are big, strong, fight well, and more often than not, are pretty willing to bite a good presentation. When handled and released correctly a single pike can become a PB for multiple anglers over multiple years! I can absolutely attest to that many times over!
One such pike that stands out was a large silver pike, caught by multiple guide boats over a period which we were able to track, to just under 10 years. First caught and documented at 43″, (it may have been caught prior but does not appear in our records), a few years later at 45″ and finally at 48″. When the large Silver Pike was was measured at 48″ it was the potential world record silver pike. That Pike could still be out there today, who only knows how big! Each catch represents a special memory for each angler lucky enough to catch it. I personally never had one of my guests catch that particular Silver pike but for years it was cool to know it was out there, waiting to thrill another angler and guide alike.
I also recall many small, medium, and large pike up to, and well over 40″ I’ve personally handled multiple times in a single season, even multiple seasons. One guest of mine even caught the same 41″ twice in the same day! The first catch occurred in the morning, then once again in the afternoon from the same general area. Upon catching it a second time, it was healthy as could be! It was simply a super aggressive pike that particular day, handled well enough to bite again several hours later.
During my last season at the lodge, there was another particular pike, at about 35″, with a distinctly recognizable mark on its side. Again, this particular pike was caught by 4 different guests of mine, at totally different times of the season, in an area covering several square km. Each time it was in a predictable location for the time it was caught, but never caught in the same place twice. At 35″ it is not considered a big pike where it was caught and in each of the four encounters, we never photographed it. Each and every time though, it put a smile on the guests faces, as well as mine for seeing an old friend. I’d thank her and tell to go and grow a few more inches. It’s been 2 season now that lodges like mine, who rely on American guests, have been hurting due to Covid measures. However, knowing that particular 35″ female pike has been out there, untouched for 2 full seasons, before I see her again, means she will probably ready to get her picture taken. It’s something to look forward to! That’s perhaps the most satisfying part of any successful catch and release encounter, knowing that the fish is still out there, getting bigger and waiting to be caught again!
When it comes to keeping pike for the table, or in my lucky case for shore lunch, I’m as big a fan as anyone! It’s part of the perks of being a guide, you get the freshest best tasting fish on a near daily basis, dream job right! So what does a guy do who gets paid for a living by helping anglers catch big pike do when the same guests, also want to be able to enjoy some nice pike or walleye with corn, beans and fresh fries?! Seems like quite the conundrum right?! Well making the choice to practice selective harvest, rather than just killing whatever fish you catch is a great first step.
Guiding on a large body of water, which sustains a healthy fish population, can still allow anglers to harvest fish for the table within reason. The region where I guide has slot limits, size restrictions in the regulations, as well as mandatory barbless hooks. The government fisheries regulations for the area is a great template for sustainability, based on science and population numbers from creel surveys and studies Our responsibility is to be selective about the pike we choose, to only harvest based on the legal limits. At the lodge I work for, we try to take it a step further to safeguard our own fishery. Therefore the only fish my fellow guides and I keep are for shore lunch, we don’t put fish on ice for guests to take home. Those fish have far greater value in the lake, in good numbers, as my job and many others depends on a sustainable fishery.
Certainly anglers should never kill large trophy fish to go get mounted, for what are hopefully obvious reasons, replica mounts have all but eliminated any reason to do so. At almost any lodge, big fish is the business and big fish need to be in the body of water your fishing to catch them, its just that simple. It’s just the basic steps we take to protect what we are fortunate to have that a have lasting and sustainable impact. The thing that best protects our waters sustainably to produce both numbers and “Trophy” fish is selective harvest. We do indeed eat some of the pike we catch, but really go out of our way to try to tell the gender of the pike and only kill males in the under 28″ range. For reference, a single 28″ pike with sides, like beans and corn, will feed 3 people comfortably at shore lunch, providing the fish is fileted well with little waste.
The reasoning behind keeping males vs females is simple. Females are less abundant than males and greater in size. If you’ve ever seen pike spawn, you’ve likely seen a single large female pike surrounded by 1-4 smaller males. That’s essentially how pike populations work, fewer larger females at the top, mid-size and growing females along with the larger males, then younger year classes of mixed population, with a higher percentage of males. The large female pike at the top of the pyramid are the the smallest segment of the population, yet are the backbone any healthy fisheries.
Larger Females produce an exponentially higher number of eggs, with an exponentially higher degree of fecundity, meaning more eggs, bigger eggs and healthier eggs with a better chance of producing an equally greater number of successful fry. In other words, bigger pike, bigger eggs, bigger growing potential and healthier fish. The larger Females also help keep the smaller pike in check due to cannibalism. There were incredible studies done where large Females were removed from a body of water in an effort to control numbers, only to have it backfire into an over abundance of smaller pike whose detriment to other local fish populations, and the local environment was disastrous. Big female pike were proven to be the glue!
How determine pike gender
The above photo although a bit blurry shows how to determine the gender of a pike. Females have a “pear shaped” anus as opposed to a “keyhole” for males. Using these identifiers can help anglers choose only male pike for the frying pan allowing the females a better opportunity to grow and reproduce!
The bottom line is people will make their own choices as to what they choose to harvest for the table or even the wall. Many pike anglers will never keep a pike, ever! Other anglers will keep as many as they are legally allowed. If you go buy a license it is your right to do as you wish with the fish you catch. I like shore lunch as much as the next guy, at the end of the day I like catching and guiding great big pike more. It still comes down to each individual trying to find the right balance for themselves and their own waters. There are lakes I fish here at home that don’t have the population to support almost any harvest. I have not kept a pike to eat from some of my home waters for two decades while others bodies of water I wouldn’t leave without a few due to great abundance. Personal choice of when and what to keep, and what to release, while being mindful of the local environment, is how we at least get closer to striking the right balance.
Catching a big old pike will put a smile on any one of our faces, it’s just good fun! Believe me when I say that going back and catching a fish, previously released the following season at a bigger size, is about as good as it gets in pike fishing. Remember, you can keep repeating this the next year, and the next year, and the next. Being selective in our harvest can still fulfill our desire to provide and enjoy the bounty of our efforts, while knowing that your trying to provide yourself, and others the opportunity at both numbers and size which can continue well into the foreseeable future. The more anglers who adopt this approach the greater we will all be rewarded the next time on the water.
Reference guide for selective harvest and maintaining trophy potential:
- Always follow local size and limit regulations
- Consider additional limits you can impose on a personal level beyond local regulations
- Only keep male pike
- Only keep smaller pike
- Release all pike on bodies of water with low and or limited pike populations
- If you goal is to keep pike consider fishing bodies of water with high populations or an abundance of smaller pike
- Use barbless hooks
- Practice CPR, Catch Photo Release of “trophy” pike no matter where you catch it
- Consider not taking photos of every fish to reduce time out of water and handling
- Promote the release of all large pike and encourage selective harvest to those you know who wish to keep pike or any species of fish or wild game
