the hudson river that runs right through this region is loaded with pike, always get 3 or 4 while bass fishing...many more if you tried for them. Spinnerbaits are their favorite (buzzbaits work pretty well too, as do black jigs)
I grew up fishing the St. Lawrence river as a kid and was spoiled rotten with the pike fishery. We always could catch fish, not jsut fish but big fish. I remember dragging around a pike I had caught showing everyone that was around, think that pike was 36 inches and I dont believe I was too much taller than that myself at the time. I remember seeing pike that were at leaste 40 + inches. There were days when we probably all could have limited out, or caught a few apiece at leaste and most of them were 21, 22 + inches. Fish in the 30's were pretty common. The fishery changed once zebra muscles got into the river, still a great river to fish from what I hear, we sold out camp years ago, but I am excited to try and fish it again as my family just bought a camp back on the river this year. I am looking forward to great pike fishing again, and if we can find them a stringer full of smallies.
Why exactly does the CDOW want to kill off all these fish?
Quote from: Pasquatch on Aug 11, 2005, 07:53 PMWhy exactly does the CDOW want to kill off all these fish?They're trying to return the waters to their original state. The bass & pike were introduced.
Quote from: Chucker on Aug 11, 2005, 09:05 PMQuote from: Pasquatch on Aug 11, 2005, 07:53 PMWhy exactly does the CDOW want to kill off all these fish?They're trying to return the waters to their original state. The bass & pike were introduced. They don't want anything that might compete with native or endangered suckers and chubs. The endangered suckers and chubs are basically extinct and nothing will ever bring them back.In fact, bass and pike did not populate the river till around 1990 when they escaped from a local reservoir. The endangered chubs and suckers were LONG GONE years before that because of the building of dams and also that they poisoned off the very suckers and trash they are now trying to save.Thats all the endangered species act does. In fact it has totally recovered exactly 0 species. In fact only 5 or 6 have ever been delisted from endangered to threatened.For this reason, I think the ESA must be amended or revoked.
Quote from: Mackdaddy21 on Aug 12, 2005, 03:10 AMQuote from: Chucker on Aug 11, 2005, 09:05 PMQuote from: Pasquatch on Aug 11, 2005, 07:53 PMWhy exactly does the CDOW want to kill off all these fish?They're trying to return the waters to their original state. The bass & pike were introduced. They don't want anything that might compete with native or endangered suckers and chubs. The endangered suckers and chubs are basically extinct and nothing will ever bring them back.In fact, bass and pike did not populate the river till around 1990 when they escaped from a local reservoir. The endangered chubs and suckers were LONG GONE years before that because of the building of dams and also that they poisoned off the very suckers and trash they are now trying to save.Thats all the endangered species act does. In fact it has totally recovered exactly 0 species. In fact only 5 or 6 have ever been delisted from endangered to threatened.For this reason, I think the ESA must be amended or revoked.It is a shame about the pike and bass. Looking for work in the fisheries field I have come across lots of jobs out west from state governments that are for small minnow help (stuff like stonerollers, chubs, suckers, and daces) Seems that there are a lot of places like this river you talk about that are having trouble with the chubs and suckers. With the pike and bass being non native they don't belong there, its a beautiful fisher though I'm sure and a shame that they are trying to kill it off for the sake of some smaller fish. These baitfish are probably just not used to hiding from these sorts of predators and pike and bass do love to eat, and eat a lot. In the longrun the state does know what they are doing with their fisheries (despite what a lot of people think) If they could I'm sure they would not be trying to kill off the bass and pike, but sounds like this is sort of a last resort for them. In defense of the ESA, bald eagles were what all but once nearly gone with their numbers being really low? I have been to alaska and now just in one lagoon where the salmon or running we counted 52 bald eagles. The ESA has saved a lot of species from going extinct sure maybe not a lot of species totally come off the list but at least they are still thriving.