“It’s unlawful to harvest any pike between 30 and 40 inches in length throughout the entire American side of Lake of the Woods,” says Rodney Pierce, fishery research biologist for the Minnesota DNR. “Anglers can keep only one trophy in excess of 40 inches. Those regulations have been in effect since 1996. In the early 1990s, the fact that big pike existed there was gaining momentum among pike fishermen everywhere. Since the regulations went into effect, the Minnesota DNR has used spring trap-netting to monitor progress, and the size of pike captured that way has been steadily increasing over time, so the regulations are showing positive results.”
Red Lake has similar regulations this year, protecting all pike between 26 and 40 inches and allowing only one trophy over 40 inches per angler. The implications are awe-inspiring. After years of monitoring one success story after another involving special regulations for muskies, we’re seeing protections put in place for big northern pike, something that should have been done a long time ago in a lot more waterways.
Big pike are critically important in maintaining populations of other fish in any lake where they exist. “It takes a long, long time for pike to reach those important large sizes, and growth rates slow down as fish get older,” Pierce says. “Big pike are too important to any fishery to be caught just once. Even normal harvest by anglers can have immediate impact on the size structure of fish in any lake. A famous and interesting study was done in Wisconsin during the late 1970s. It involved two lakes, Mid Lake and Allen Lake, side by side, in a park system. Mid Lake was closed to fishing for 15 years. The contrast between the two lakes was tremendous, the average size of pike, bass, and panfish being much larger in Mid Lake. Within a month of opening Mid Lake to general fishing, the two lakes began to look very similar again in terms of average size of all gamefish.”
Throwing larger spinnerbaits into cane lines, bulrushes, and cabbage flats that surround the shorelines of these huge Minnesota lakes during early summer provides some of the most exciting pike fishing to be found stateside. Gators can be caught shallow in summer during big wind events. Throwing Lucky Craft Pointer 128s and large Husky Jerks at windblown reefs on cloudy days can produce dynamic results. During warm, calm weather, fish flats in the 30- to 60-foot depths, right on bottom, using aggressive retrieves with 1- to 2-ounce jigs and large, straight-tailed plastics. And, out in open water, when you can locate big schools of suspended ciscoes, troll around them with mid-depth to deep-diving cranks on braided line and you’re into a big-time slime program—one of the best in the lower 48.
The potential exists, through special regs (and wetland preservation), to have trophy-pike fisheries scattered throughout every state north of the Mason-Dixon line. Those who spend upwards of $4,000 per year to chase big pike in the Far North of Canada should take note. Spend a little of that money on your phone bill. Lobby state fishery people, local fishing organizations, and local congressmen. Stump for special regulations. They work.
