banner day on balsam

[JoshS]

I think the issue other than competed for food and spawning grounds is that pike spawn and hatch earlier than musky, and juveniles eat musky fry potentially impacting the population. It's happened on other lakes like canal, crowe, where musky fishing used to be good until pike invaded... Now the musky fishing sucks. Look at what happened to Elephant and Baptist!!! It's scary to think that could potentially happen on Balsam, really scary.

 

However I can't really notice an impact on musky fishing yet other than catching lots of snot rockets and seeing the odd tiger. Let's hope they coexist fine. I remember 4-5 years ago pike in Balsam were kind of rare, now we see them every trip. It's really interesting how other musky fisheries were destroyed with the intro of pike.. I'd love to know exactly why and how long that took. Fingers crossed this doesn't happen on Balsam! I pray they stay out of cameron, sturgeon, pigeon and the others but realistically it's inevitable.

[Sinker]

I guess when your favourite musky lake is full of dink pike you will understand where I'm coming from.

 

If you want pike, fish a pike lake, not the kawarthas. Kill 'em all!

 

S.

[Sinker]

Back in the day, crowe lake was loaded with musky. Lots of them.....and many of them were big! My dad and I have had 15 fish days there for musky. Try catching one there now........good luck! Have fun with the dink pike. If your lucky, you'll get a 30"er.

 

When that fishery went to pot,w e started fishing around our cottage, on elephant lake/baptiste. AMAZING musky fishing. My PB musky is outta there, and many, many many fish over 45". I haven't caught one there in about 5-6 yrs. Just a couple years after I got my first pike. Its hard to catch bass and walleye there now too........but......if you want dink pike, its like shooting fish in a barrel. They're a dime a dozen, and nobody wants them.

 

Ask the owners of elephant lake lodge how pike affected their business. Oh yeah, that's right, they're out of business.

 

Inevitible is a good for nothing pike fishery in a lake that used to be amazing for musky. You guys who think its neat to catch the odd pike, and tiger musky will be the first ones whining when ya can't catch a musky in the kawarthas anymore.

 

I promise to kill every single one that graces my boat, and I hope everyone else who catches one does the same.

 

S.

[beagle dad]

Sinker, on 28 May 2013 - 20:04, said:

I guess when your favourite musky lake is full of dink pike you will understand where I'm coming from.

 

If you want pike, fish a pike lake, not the kawarthas. Kill 'em all!

 

S.

when your favourite walleye lakes are full of muskies...KILL EM ALL !!!

go fish a muskie lake not the kawarthas..

u are obviously not old enough to understand the cycles a lake and nature goes through

or just out for your own satisfaction not the future of lands and waters

[Terry]

pike in balsam has nothing to do with cycles just look how bad canal lake is 25 years after pike moved in....balsam cameron then all the kawarthas

[Sinker]

I'm older than you might think, obviously. Educated too. You clearly didn't read my next post where I wrote my experiences of two separate lakes, one shield lake, nowhere near the kawarthas.

 

I've never seen muskies do any harm. To a walleye population, have you? Anyone else? Its an old wives tale, unless you can show me some proof!

 

S.

[beagle dad]

Back in the day, crowe lake was loaded with musky. Lots of them.....and many of them were big! My dad and I have had 15 fish days there for musky. Try catching one there now........good luck! Have fun with the dink pike. If your lucky, you'll get a 30"er.

 

When that fishery went to pot,w e started fishing around our cottage, on elephant lake/baptiste. AMAZING musky fishing. My PB musky is outta there, and many, many many fish over 45". I haven't caught one there in about 5-6 yrs. Just a couple years after I got my first pike. Its hard to catch bass and walleye there now too........but......if you want dink pike, its like shooting fish in a barrel. They're a dime a dozen, and nobody wants them.

 

Ask the owners of elephant lake lodge how pike affected their business. Oh yeah, that's right, they're out of business.

 

Inevitible is a good for nothing pike fishery in a lake that used to be amazing for musky. You guys who think its neat to catch the odd pike, and tiger musky will be the first ones whining when ya can't catch a musky in the kawarthas anymore.

 

I promise to kill every single one that graces my boat, and I hope everyone else who catches one does the same.

 

S.

I think there is a lesson that your dad was trying to teach you that you missed

fishing is not about catching !!!

its about the time you get to spend outdoors and sharing those special moments with family and friends

 

GO OUT CATCH A FISH WHILE ALONE...YES ITS SPECIAL

GO OUT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY CATCH A FISH OR NOT....THATS WAY MORE SPECIAL

[beagle dad]

pike in balsam has nothing to do with cycles just look how bad canal lake is 25 years after pike moved in....balsam cameron then all the kawarthas

But now that they are there the lake will go through a cycle with pike part of that cycle

and yes be prepared those that think that in the future pike will not be in all the kawarthas if they are not be warned

THERE HERE!!!!!!!!!

[beagle dad]

I'm older than you might think, obviously. Educated too. You clearly didn't read my next post where I wrote my experiences of two separate lakes, one shield lake, nowhere near the kawarthas.

 

I've never seen muskies do any harm. To a walleye population, have you? Anyone else? Its an old wives tale, unless you can show me some proof!

 

S.

WHAT YOU THINK MUSKIES IN THE KAWARTHAS EAT STEAK???

as per studies MNR/SSFC... THE #1 FOOD SOURCE FOR MUSKIES IN THE KAWARTHAS WALLEYE!!!!!!!!!

[ccmtcanada]

Back to the original post.....

 

Great day fishing for sure! Conditions were tough and you managed to catch some nice fish. Congrats!

[Sinker]

Ok, you know nothing about me or my father, and I'm not sure what it has to do with pike infesting the kawarthas, but you go ahead and think what you like.

 

There are thousands and thousands of pike lakes in ON. I'd bet less than half of that have musky. Protect them while we have them. Once they're gone, they're GONE!

 

S.

[beagle dad]

Back to the original post.....

 

Great day fishing for sure! Conditions were tough and you managed to catch some nice fish. Congrats!

TY yes awesome day lots of laughs and had a blast with wifey(anchor)

[beagle dad]

and so I guess your fishing days are comeing to an end or you will have to travel elsewhere to catch your precious musky

[Sinker]

Ok, so muskies eat walleye. Geeze, your smart. Wait a minute......the kawarthas are full of musky......AND walleyes.....now I'm confused.

 

You can argue with me all you want, wreck your fishing report, and make yourself ( and me) look like an idiot, but pike are NOT a good thing in the kawarthas.

 

Agree??

 

S.

[MJL]

I don’t fish for muskies – I have actually never caught one (but would like to one day)

 

Here’s one article I found which details the issues of pike/muskie relationships in the Kawarthas

 

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@letsfish/documents/document/264328.pdf

 

I’m surprised that they found pike and tiger muskies in Scugog

 

Pike are open year round in the Kawarthas. Darryl Choronzey did say that pike tasted as good as walleye during one of his fish fries on TV...

Edited May 29, 2013 by MJL

[Sinker]

Yeah, my precious musky. Are you saying I'm some sort of musky elitist? I'm far from it. As a matter of fact, I spend less time fishing for, and catch less musky than any other fish.

 

If you think pike getting into these lakes is a good thing, you need to give your head a shake, or do some research.

 

S.

[buckster]

Pike have no place in the kawarthas IMO. Kill them all! I'm with sinker on this one in terms of the value of a Muskie fishery.

[beagle dad]

good thing or not irrelevant...they are not going away

my report was just that a report!

catching fish to me is what its all about....who cares about species!

fished across this great country of ours am privileged to have the ability to go fishing

I enjoy others catching fish as much as myself no matter species

your kill them all attitude is the issue ...statements like that makes real fisherman everywhere look bad

[glen]

Sinker is right.

 

Have they had this problem anywhere else? US maybe. If so did they have any success fixing it?

[Rich]

Back in the day, crowe lake was loaded with musky. Lots of them.....and many of them were big! My dad and I have had 15 fish days there for musky. Try catching one there now........good luck! Have fun with the dink pike. If your lucky, you'll get a 30"er.

 

When that fishery went to pot,w e started fishing around our cottage, on elephant lake/baptiste. AMAZING musky fishing. My PB musky is outta there, and many, many many fish over 45". I haven't caught one there in about 5-6 yrs. Just a couple years after I got my first pike. Its hard to catch bass and walleye there now too........but......if you want dink pike, its like shooting fish in a barrel. They're a dime a dozen, and nobody wants them.

 

Ask the owners of elephant lake lodge how pike affected their business. Oh yeah, that's right, they're out of business.

 

Inevitible is a good for nothing pike fishery in a lake that used to be amazing for musky. You guys who think its neat to catch the odd pike, and tiger musky will be the first ones whining when ya can't catch a musky in the kawarthas anymore.

 

I promise to kill every single one that graces my boat, and I hope everyone else who catches one does the same.

 

S.

How do you know pike were 100% the reason for the decline of musky in your lakes?

 

You know I caught a pike in Rice Lake 12 yrs ago. They havent overpopulated it in that time yet. Maybe, pike thrive when lakes change?

 

Lakes just change.

 

I could tell you a whole bunch of lakes I fished before, that USED to be amazing fisheries.. for pike, bass, musky, crappies, perch... Guess what? The well always runs dry. There were no new species introduced to those spots.. just new fishermen.

 

It's easy to immediately blame a scapegoat for the decline of your success... But unless you're a biologist who never leaves the lake, you dont know for sure that pike did anything to your muskies.

[Terry]

on canal mitchell and balsam it was the MNR biologist that said no pike should be released back into the lake

[Fisherpete]

I do agree that I don't think pike getting into Balsam is a good thing - but with the numbers that are in there now, I seriously doubt that anglers can fix the problem - that`s all I was saying. After reading this post yesterday, I decided to take a run up there yesterday - and in 5 rainy hours caught ten pike, nine of them in about an hour and a half window. The smallest was 25 inches, the biggest two were a 33 and a 34. Gotta tell ya, it was a blast catching them! I`m a musky diehard, and hope that they can co-exist, but only time will tell. I also caught a 20 inch walleye (slot) and a LMB. Didn`t see any skis in my travels, but then I was fishing my fave pike spots with small lures, not my ski areas. Water temps (60-61F) and weed growth are still behind - hopefully the hot weather in the next few days gets things going for opener! (I won`t be out though - stuck working )

 

I don`t keep a lot of fish in general, but Balsam pike do often come home with me - I eat a few, and have family and friends who love them. But I would never kill one just for the sake of killing one. I have seen locals on Dalrymple catch a pike, slit it`s throat and throw it back - and when I asked them why, they said it was to protect the walleye that they had paid for to be stocked in there. Not the way to do things in my opinion. Did someone from the MNR really say to keep or kill any pike that come out of Balsam? Maybe years ago when they were just getting reports of pike in there? I wonder if they would still say this today - can anyone find out?

[Sinker]

Ever wonder why pike season in the kawarthas is open all year?

 

I'm honestly shocked that so many people are arguing that pike are OK.

 

Do some reading.

 

I'm no biologist, but I do have a biology background, and I've seen first hand what happens when pike get into a new lake.

 

Rish, its was 100% pike that decimated the musky fisheries in both lakes I mentioned, and that is fact, not something I made up, or assumed. Do some reading, its all out there.

 

Every pike that comes in my boat is getting bonked, filleted, and fried, if its from a kawartha lake.

 

Sorry for caring.

 

S.

[Sinker]

I'm not saying to kill them for the sakes of killing them, I'm saying kill them and eat them!

 

S.

[fishnsled]

It's not just Balsam either being affected by the pike. Careless anglers have been throwing them over the dam at Coby into the head waters. Reports of them being caught on Cameron and from the report that MJL posted it is much wider spread. (Pigeon and Scugog) Worth a read.

 

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@letsfish/documents/document/264328.pdf

 

I've been told by the MNR when stopped on Balsam in the past to kill all pike caught. Now I haven't been stopped in few years out there so I'm not sure what they would say today.

 

Too bad your original post got off topic, and congrats on a great day. There are some very good points being brought up on this invasive species though.