Northern Pike in the Columbia?

(also from the other fishing site )
Sorry to kill the mood over the high predictions of spring salmon with this but it looks like salmon and steelhead in the Big C may face a new threat soon.  As much as I love fishing for northerns it would really break my heart to see them take over the river - as if salmonids don't have enough to worry about.  Hopefully it won't happen and this will turn out to be just another one of those scares that come and go.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/release.php?id=dec1311a

I would like to see some kind of impact study before I was concerned. I am not a biologist, but I study fish pretty carefully. I am from the east coast and the best trout lakes that I fished had trout and pike. The pike just do not eat that many trout (from stomach examinations). They were much more likely to eat perch and panfish. In general, pike do not like current. They will spend most of their time in the backwaters. My guess is that they would prey more on smallmouth, perch and pikieminnows than salmon or steelhead smolts. It is possible that they could reduce the pikieminnow population and provide a slower food source for sea lions. In general, pike need calm marshy areas to spawn in just after ice out. I do not think that there is much spawning territory relative to the volume of water in the Columbia.

My take until shown otherwise is that this will generate hysteria magnitudes of order out of proportion to the problem. I can already guess that the gillnetters are lobbying that any monies spent on monitoring them should be  moved to studying this new dire threat. Once again, it is just my opinion, but I think that this is nothing compared to the real threats of habitat degradation and ocean and river commercial fishing.

Good thoughts pdx.
I guess I wonder if people felt nervous when walleye were discovered in the Columbia and if they were seen as a species that could significantly impact salmon and steelhead populations.  Any long-time residents know?

Walleye, Shad, Striped Bass, LMB and SMB etc including Northern Pike are all introduced to the PNW.

Pike Invasion info
http://wdfw.wa.gov/ais/esox_lucius/

Bsteves is the man to ask about this.  But my take it is never a good idea in any way to add a nonnative invasive species into an already stressed system.  I have caught both Smallmouth and Walleye stuffed with smolt in both the Columbia and the Willamette multiple times and personally believe they take their slice of the smolt pie every season.  Yet the Northen Pikeminnow gets to be the scape goat on the Columbia with the bounty program.  Even if the pike only hang in the backwaters and sloughs these area are critical staging and development areas for migrating smolt.  The last thing they need is another predator.   

 Do a google search on the effects of the Terns and Comerants (13% of the run) on the Corps of Engineers dredge spoils "sand island" on the lower Columbia if you want to see some real effects of changing the natural balance. Once things get "changed" its really difficult if not impossible to re correct.


http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/on_east_sand_island_at_the_mou.html

But my take it is never a good idea in any way to add a nonnative invasive species into an already stressed system.  I have caught both Smallmouth and Walleye stuffed with smolt in both the Columbia and the Willamette multiple times and personally believe they take their slice of the smolt pie every season.  Yet the Northen Pikeminnow gets to be the scape goat on the Columbia with the bounty program. 

Squawfish take the blame because Bass and Walleye are popular with the Basstards, and nobody likes pikeminnow (even though it IS a native species)

But my take it is never a good idea in any way to add a nonnative invasive species into an already stressed system.  I have caught both Smallmouth and Walleye stuffed with smolt in both the Columbia and the Willamette multiple times and personally believe they take their slice of the smolt pie every season.  Yet the Northen Pikeminnow gets to be the scape goat on the Columbia with the bounty program. 

Squawfish take the blame because Bass and Walleye are popular with the Basstards, and nobody likes pikeminnow (even though it IS a native species)

True dat!  Its Bonneville's sad attempt to mitigate the effects of the dams

The last thing they need is another predator.   
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/on_east_sand_island_at_the_mou.html

I agree that the fish do not need more stress. I was not trying to say that pike will have zero impact, just that there are are lot larger concerns.
I feel like every time something like this pike issue comes up that the real culprits take it as an opportunity to say "ignore the man behind the
curtain".  Sleight of hand is a powerful tool.

Walleye, Shad, Striped Bass, LMB and SMB etc including Northern Pike are all introduced to the PNW.

Pike Invasion info
http://wdfw.wa.gov/ais/esox_lucius/

And there appears to be a direct correlation between the increase in these species and the demise of the once enormous lamprey and smelt runs.

-Spot-

I miss dippin' for smelt on the Sandy.
😢

Walleye, Shad, Striped Bass, LMB and SMB etc including Northern Pike are all introduced to the PNW.

Pike Invasion info
http://wdfw.wa.gov/ais/esox_lucius/

And there appears to be a direct correlation between the increase in these species and the demise of the once enormous lamprey and smelt runs.

-Spot-

Well, there is also a correlation between the building of dams and the reduction in lamprey runs.  Oh wait, there is also a correlation to the building of dams and the increase in native northern pikeminnow.  Oh wait, there is also a correlation to the increase in man and the decrease in fish.   Aeeiiiii ... too many correlations at one time.   

Pike ... bad!

-Allen

Well, there is also a correlation between the building of dams and the reduction in lamprey runs.  Oh wait, there is also a correlation to the building of dams and the increase in native northern pikeminnow.  Oh wait, there is also a correlation to the increase in man and the decrease in fish.   Aeeiiiii ... too many correlations at one time.   

Pike ... bad!

-Allen

Quit making sense Allen.  It just confuses the issue.  Lol!

-Spot-

Aw, geeezz, I got mixed feeling on this one---I used to chase alll the way up to the north shore of Lake Superior for pike, back in the day I lived in Ann Arbor, MI>  I think they were my favorite eating fish, walleye too soft, perch tasty but too small.  I once knocked an 18-20# pike off  my boat buddies line trying to net it, thus earning my first CB handle: Wood B. Netter!! 

I have been fishing on the rivers and lakes of Oregon since 75 and I do remember when walleye started showing up on the Columbia and yes people said the sky was falling. I am with PDX. IMHO everytime we, meaning people, mess with the natural progression of things they go to heck. Dams, Pollution, Commercial Fishing, hap hazard non native introduction of species that do not belong in an area. I could go on mostly based on greed and exploitation of a resource or not carring of the impact that it causes. I remember speak with a gentlemen fishing the upper clack in the early eighties, he was like 90 years old. He said that he was fishing the upper Clack as a child when there wasn't a road beyond Estacada. No Dams he said you could walk across the river on the backs of the salmon. Those days are gone forever. Anyway would the introduction of Northern Pike pose a problem? Probably. Would it cause more damage that we have caused ourself? Not likely.

I'd like to tell a story about a fight we are facing down here on the Sacramento River.  Striped bass were introduced well over 100 years ago.  They have co-existed peacefully with salmon for all of that time, and yes, they are predatory in nature and certainly feed on young salmon.  In the past few years, a drought, coupled with increase water diversions for SoCal have wreaked havoc on the ecosystem and the runs of both salmon and striped bass.  And you know what, the SoCa water users have lobbied that the collapse in the salmon fishery was due to the striped bass.  They have placed the focus on that and have a bullseye on it with increased harvest on the striped bass under serious proposal.  Remember, the striped bass fishery has taken a huge hit too and they too are considered an economically important fishery (much like salmon).  Are they right?  I really don't care, because I believe any discussion about the effects of the striped bass draw focus away from a real problem ... too much water diversion from the ecosystem.

Mark my words, if the northern pike spread to the main Columbia, you will see it become yet another scapegoat that draws attention away from the real problem.  And the real problem is?  Well, I'll leave that to you to debate!!!   

-Allen