Mr. Pike, here they come!

[alexander]

Just saw Fish and Game Biologist and workers go by our house at the mouth of Alexander Creek with four skiffs and an airboat full of tents, gear, and nets. The war on Pike continues. Does any one think it will do any good? The Silvers, Dogs, and Pinks are doing alright here and there are even some good Rainbows and Grayling in the fall but no Kings. I think the sport fishing pressure on this creek for many years is the main reason, followed by Pike, commercial fishing and bycatch, too many seals running around in no particular order. What do you think?

[thewhop2000]

I think it is about time for Moose and Goose to kill them pike!! They should have been netting all winter long,IMO. Just like in barrow for whitefish.

[alexander]

I heard people say the lake isnt producing as many Pike as before according to some ice fishermen. Still see some Pike at the mouth and in our lagoon. They will never get rid of them but if they net every year and introduce some fingerlings from Wolverine Creek Maybe the Kings might be half decent again someday. I know it sure is nice and quite around here now a days.

[Bullelkklr]

What a shame to have lost this fishery due to greed and missmanagement....I too hope that it comes back some day -

Are you saying that there are ZERO kings left - you see Nunca in the upper river?

[Akres]

Welp...If they manage the Pike like they did the Kings...I think the whole creek will go Sterile within a couple of years!!! Just wish they would start managing Mosquitoes in the same manner!

[alexander]

Not quite zero but close went from over 5000 escapement in later 90's to less than 200 kings now. A lot of the fault goes to lodges, guides, and Air charters. This creek was indaunted way beyond it's capacity for many years. Just think a lot of the customers over here were from Germany, and France and they stayed for 10 days to 2 weeks. Usaully catching 2 kings a day downstream and upstream. We would see F&G maybe 2 to 3 times a summer. Of course instead of shutting the river down or going to weekends only they just let it dry up. Terrible management if you ask me! What gets me is now they are blaming Pike like they are scientist or something. Pathetic
Having lived here for quite some time it is easy to see the main cause is over fishing by far. Bullelkklr hit it right on the button...... PURE GREED!

[penguin]

Hope we can get back to the good old days.

[Nerka]

Hope we can get back to the good old days.

When opportunity enters ADF&G thinking (because budget for ADF&G Sport Fish Division is dependent on sport fish participation) and it put in direct conflict with biological health of the resource the resource tends to lose. The reason, instead of taking action sooner, decision makers wait until they have to act - this is usually too late. This is not unique to Alaska decision makers. However, what has broken down here is that biologist are taking this approach. Usually it is political decision makers - appointments to the Commissioner type level.

One only has to look at the recent Sport Fish Division history around Cook Inlet to see this pattern. It is the culture of advocacy, funding source influences, and lack of well trained biologists in conservation biology in some cases.

Having said that the pike issue is real and a basin wide plan and approach is needed. On the Columbia River predator control is costing millions of dollars but there is a plan. It will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions to deal with pike in the Susitna. Netting one lake is not the answer for the bigger picture.

As a side note I always wondered why ADF&G does not contract with commercial fisherman in the off season to net out pike. I am sure there are some that would did it for the good of the resource. These people know how to kill fish and have the resources to do it - whether by seine, gill net, traps, or whatever. When you put a commercial fisherman and his crew to work they will kill fish and have a ball doing it.

[sayak]

Not quite zero but close went from over 5000 escapement in later 90's to less than 200 kings now. A lot of the fault goes to lodges, guides, and Air charters. This creek was indaunted way beyond it's capacity for many years. Just think a lot of the customers over here were from Germany, and France and they stayed for 10 days to 2 weeks. Usaully catching 2 kings a day downstream and upstream. We would see F&G maybe 2 to 3 times a summer. Of course instead of shutting the river down or going to weekends only they just let it dry up. Terrible management if you ask me! What gets me is now they are blaming Pike like they are scientist or something. Pathetic
Having lived here for quite some time it is easy to see the main cause is over fishing by far. Bullelkklr hit it right on the button...... PURE GREED!

Unfettered greed is s resource killer. This kind of thing has happened all over Alaska, but the pike are a convenient scapegoat.

[Music Man]

"convenient scapegoat" or not the pike are not native and will eat any and everything in there path. They need to go! How about a bounty?

[Bullelkklr]

"This creek was indaunted way beyond it's capacity for many years. Just think a lot of the customers over here were from Germany, and France and they stayed for 10 days to 2 weeks. Usaully catching 2 kings a day downstream and upstream. We would see F&G maybe 2 to 3 times a summer. Of course instead of shutting the river down or going to weekends only they just let it dry up."


You drove that Nail DEEP. +1

[leadworm]

A lot of good points in this thread; regarding the legacy of mismanagement and evil nature of pike (Ha-Ha). I love too the comment about ADFG managing mosquitoes! ADFG should consider stocking sterile tiger-musky for some of these systems/drainages.....

[Dr.No]

What gets me is now they are blaming Pike like they are scientist or something. Pathetic

It's almost like they had their biologists/scientists study this problem and then came up with that conclusion....weird. Like someone else said, the pike issue is real...blaming this issue on overfishing, when there has been no fishing on Alexander Creek since 2008, doesn't make much sense. According to your logic we should see numbers start to rebound this next year...

[ak_powder_monkey]

netting big pike is dumb when they start gillnetting the little ones like the 6 inchers... instead of killing the ones that are big and eat the little ones

[alexander]

Trust me Dr.No overfishing was the main cause for the crash. Now as far as Pike being the long term problem now I will grant you that. By the way judging by the numbers of Kings we are seeing rolling up the river the numbers have improved. The biologists stopped by the house yesterday and said they are going to do two different counts on the Kings later on because they to believe the Kings are at least a little stronger this year. They just put up three towers to moniter some Pike with radio tracking to see what they do and where they go. In other words do they head back up to the lake for the winter? I know that when we go fishing in late september up river around Trail and Sucker Creek that we rarely see a pike. They netted around four thousand pike this year and this is the third year. I can tell you that the Silvers, Rainbows, and Grayling are faring better too! I dont believe we will ever get rid of the pike but who knows this is an experiment so ya never know.
I do know that I kinda hope to protect the species that they never totally open this creek again. I mean if they make it a weekend fishery then it would prevent the lodges from opening and prevent the Europeons and the greedy guides from decimating this river ever again! Besides it sure is peacefull around here!