I live in the heart of Trout Country and hang out with Trout Unlimited types, but I’m man enough to admit that I’ve been observed fishing for northern pike – and proud of it because I consider the water wolf one of the best game fish we have in western Montana.
I might feel differently if only trout could have anywhere near the attitude and appetite of this apex predator, but no, you’ll never see a trout take down a muskrat or coot like a big pike can and does. You’ll never see a 20-inch trout try to eat a 15-inch trout, but a 30-inch pike will die trying to eat a 25-inch pike. That’s what you call predacious! That’s why I like pike fishing. They don’t gently slurp up a No. 20 PMD. They attack every lure or fly like they haven’t eaten in a week. I’ve actually caught pike with a lemming-imitation fly that would make any trout want its mommy.
To be clear, I’m pro-pike, not anti-trout. I like trout, too. I spend many winter days out on the Missouri trying to outwit the smartest trout in the world with flies the size of grains of pepper.
When spring comes, though, I switch to pike fishing, but sadly, I have go up to Canada to do it, even though western Montana has some great pike habitat. Fisheries managers, spurred on by trout worshipers, do everything they can to make sure western Montana doesn’t have fishable pike populations.
Unbelievably, we have no limit on the number taken or in possession, no size restrictions, and anglers can take pike with any method, even spearing. Netting or explosives would probably be legal pike-killing methods if we could do it without the collateral damage of taking out a few trout. We encourage pike killing derbies, like those on Salmon Lake and Seeley Lake, and we have no ethics about taking the big breeders out of the population.
Up in northern Saskatchewan, where I go each year, pike fishing is fantastic because the management is fantastic – mostly catch-and-release with barbless hooks. For trophy fish, it’s all CPR (Catch, Photograph, Release), so if you want to see your prize above the fireplace, you measure it for a replica mount before carefully releasing it.
Unknown to many, northern pike are native to Montana, albeit only in the Saskatchewan River System, but brook, brown, and rainbow trout are not native to Montana. Brook and brown trout are totally invasive species, and only one rare rainbow subspecies, the redband rainbow of the Kootenai River System, is native. The rainbow trout we worship in the Bitterroot, Missouri and Madison are non-indigenous.
By the way, big trout eat little trout, and rainbows hybridize with cutthroats and may have had more negative impact on native cutthroats than pike have.
In rivers like the Clark Fork, Flathead or Bitterroot, the varied habitat allows pike and trout to co-exist. Pike concentrate in the backwaters; trout prefer moving water. When paths cross, the water wolf usually has a nice trout dinner because, like it or not, the pike is on top of the aquatic food chain. Pike dominate a lake because they’re the superior species – and that makes them a mighty fine game fish. (Ditto for lake trout.)
Through the years, I’ve managed to convince a few trout guys to try fly fishing for pike, and guess what, they can’t get enough of it. Early season sight fishing for pike in a shallow bay with a streamer or watching a big pike wallop a popper, well, that’s as good as fishing gets.
I’d rather fly fish for pike than trout, but I can’t fish for pike without driving a 1,000 miles. Even in excellent pike habitat in western Montana, you can blind cast all day without a single hook-up. I used to have decent success for pike on the Flathead River and in Swan Lake and Whitefish Lake, but over-consumption by pike anglers is decimating those populations. On Salmon Lake and Seeley Lake, also productive pike waters, anglers continue to kill the big pike, which may soon lead to stunted populations. We’re already close to having nothing but “hammer handles” in those lakes.
Until we see a new attitude among fisheries managers, if we want pike populations and the size of the fish to increase in western Montana, we must voluntarily manage the resource ourselves. Take home a luncher here and there, but carefully release all big pike.
I sympathize with native species biologists. What species do Montana anglers really want? Browns and rainbows, pike and walleye, smallmouth bass, lake whitefish, and lake trout – all non-native species. Meanwhile, many anglers display disinterest at best for native species like bull and cutthroat trout because they aren’t nearly the game fish.
I understand biologists are charged with preserving the greater good, saving as much natural diversity as possible. Their job isn’t to make or keep anglers happy. Nonetheless, they face that political headwind every morning.
I wish we’d never had any illegal introductions of northern pike or smallmouth bass or lake trout, but we did. So, now we deal with the reality.
So, let’s cool the pike bashing. We can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube, so let’s manage this incredible game fish. I find it humorous that biologists fear managing pike because they might create more excitement and enthusiasm (translate: political pressure) for pike fishing. To this, I say, ha! It’s way too late.