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Otonabee Tiger?


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Got out Wed evening with the wifey for some bass fishing...Got into a couple lil musky that are always a nice surprise :good:

 

Wife was in awe of the markings on this one, I told her it was a tiger?

 

IMG-20160824-00061.jpg

 

And this lil guy to compare

 

IMG-20160824-00067.jpg

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That's the second Hybrid I've seen out of rice this year. Not a good sign! I haven't seen any pike myself, but have heard of more and more getting caught. Mostly in the east end of the lake. I find musky hard to catch in rice lake for some reason. I mostly fish the west end, and have only caught a few. That said, I don't target them much at all in there.

 

S.

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According to our (MCI) research and the OMNRF reports, Rice Lake has had confirmed Pike in it for about 3 years. Pike have also been confirmed in the Ottonabee River and Little Lake.

They are migrating through the Trent System and eventually will show up in each lake. Only a matter of time. Muskies Canada concerns are that the Kawartha strain of Muskie which is genetically different than the French River, Georgian Bay, St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River strains may not be able to adapt to a co habitant existence with Northern Pike.

We along with the OMNRF are monitoring this closely, but there may NOT be a solution other than to let Mother Nature take it's course.

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Tom, what strain of muskies were stocked in Lake Simcoe? Can they co-exist with pike? In theory, if they can, they may follow the pike down thru the Kawartha lakes chain. It might not help the Kawartha strain of muskie but would ensure a viable population of muskies.

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The Muskies which are being restocked into Simcoe are Georgian Bay strain. The eggs obtained are mainly from Gloucester Pool, but this year due to unforeseen water temps when the egg collections were taking place in May, the water temps on the Pool were not suitable and the Female Muskies were not ripe. Luckily eggs were obtained from two females from Parry Sound.

My understanding is the Fleming hatchery had a difficult time with a lot of the eggs not "eyeing up" so their production of fingerlings is down to about 1000 or so compared to nearly 4000 over the last few years. Yes to in theory they might migrate into the Kawarthas and this also remains to be seen.

 

Sorry to the OP to drag this slightly off topic.

Edited by Tom McCutcheon
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I apologise too for taking it off topic, sorry about that. I had been following the migration of pike from Simcoe to the east, but of course they are migrating from both directions! Sure makes for some pretty looking fish though.

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I apologise too for taking it off topic, sorry about that. I had been following the migration of pike from Simcoe to the east, but of course they are migrating from both directions! Sure makes for some pretty looking fish though.

 

I'm All ears not a problem!!

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According to our (MCI) research and the OMNRF reports, Rice Lake has had confirmed Pike in it for about 3 years. Pike have also been confirmed in the Ottonabee River and Little Lake.

They are migrating through the Trent System and eventually will show up in each lake. Only a matter of time. Muskies Canada concerns are that the Kawartha strain of Muskie which is genetically different than the French River, Georgian Bay, St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River strains may not be able to adapt to a co habitant existence with Northern Pike.

We along with the OMNRF are monitoring this closely, but there may NOT be a solution other than to let Mother Nature take it's course.

 

my understanding is that the difference in spawning times makes the pike a huge threat, ie pike spawn sooner, and their fry then feed off the musky fry. a couple months later

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Correct...

 

Pike in the Kawarthas are mostly using the same spawning locations as their cousins, two to three weeks in advance of Muskies and thus are in very near proximity as fry when the Muskie eggs hatch and become "swim ups" The Pike fry are also in direct competition for the same food source of any Muskie fry which survive the swim up stage. It's the first 6 months to a year of a Muskies life that are most critical. If the Muskie makes it past the fingerling portion of it's life, they can usually handle themselves living amongst a Pike of the same age.

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Nice tiger Mark! It's way too late for the keeping pike and hoping it helps them go away strategy - I've had an 11 pike landed and 10+ more follow day while muskie fishing Balsam this year... They are here to stay. 40" pike are being caught. Nothing wrong with a good pike fry though - so eat away!

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Sad to say, but Pete is right. They are here and the research we have done since 2009 on the Pike Invasion, has given us little hope of trying to stop it. It took over a 100 years for the Northern Pike to filter in through the locks. If a marine railway (similar to the one at Big Chute) had been constructed at each end of the Kawartha waterway when the thought of a navigation route was conceived, it's possible we would not be discussing this today.

Northern Pike are a great sport fish, so long as all that are in the system are not hammer handles, and their larger cousin the Muskie can learn to adapt.

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Not sure why you guys arent eating pike anyway???

 

A 25-30" pike is amazing taste and alot of meat.

 

I love walleye/perch and crappie, Ill never stop fishing them. But every year im releasing more of those and keeping much more pike

 

And its undeniably the easiest fish to catch

Edited by manitoubass2
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