Winter tops for northern pike catch, harvest

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Fish should be biting before March 6 game fish season closure WAUKESHA - Some of the year's best fishing for northern pike is upon us, with anglers having until the game fish season closes March 6 to catch the scrappy water wolf.

In fact, a statewide survey of Wisconsin anglers in the 2000-2001 season found that northern pike was the only game fish species in which anglers caught and harvested more fish during the winter than at any other time during the year.

That random survey of Wisconsin’s licensed anglers revealed that fully 30 percent of the total estimated 3,715,090 northern pike caught during the year were caught during the winter months of December, January and February. Furthermore, the northern pike caught during winter constituted 58 percent of the total harvest of northern pike in that year of 840,307, according to the survey.

That doesn't surprise Randy Schumacher, a DNR fisheries supervisor for inland waters in southeastern Wisconsin.

"The best northern pike fishing of the entire year is just before ice out, and coming weeks are when our biggest northern pike are caught," Schumacher says. "This is when you fish for the monsters. Most of our lakes in southeastern Wisconsin don’t have a lot of northern pike, but they have huge ones."

"Those big northerns, which are usually females, need energy, and lots of it, for the spawning season which is to come at the end of March, just after ice-out. To get that energy, they start feeding now," Schumacher says.

With warm temperatures melting snow and sending fresh water into lakes and rivers through cracks and crevices in the ice and holes drilled by anglers, oxygen levels start to rise making panfish more active. That's great for panfish anglers because their quarry becomes active and starts feeding too. More panfish moving in search of food means more opportunities for ambush predators like northern pike. That large golden shiner you have been fishing with all winter now looks pretty inviting to a hungry water wolf, he says.

"When we get this big dose of fresh water coming in, oxygen in our lakes goes up to 8, 9, 10 parts per million, instead of 2 or 3, as often happens in the deeper waters in winter, and the pike start biting," Schumacher says. "This is when we see the real big ones caught -- the 20-plus pounders."

Anglers are bringing in some nice-sized northern pike from Madison's Lake Mendota, including reports of a 44-inch long pike. Kurt Welke, DNR fish biologist for the Madison lakes, notes that the lake's special 40-inch size limit exists because of the potential to grow large fish but cautions that because pike are a top predator, their densities are lower so they won't be giving anglers' tip ups the same workout that panfish might at this time of year.

The 2002 population estimate for Lake Mendota's pike was somewhere between 5,100 and 8,000 adult pike, ranging in size from seven inches to 44 inches and weighing up to 23 pounds, Welke says. The lake receives annual stockings of both larger fingerlings and fry. The length distribution in 2002 shows that more stocked fish are surviving well and growing into the catchable sizes in greater numbers now than seven years ago, probably a function of the higher size limits preserving fish longer, he says.

Runoff isn't as far along in northern Wisconsin at this time of year, but northern pike are one of the more popular species targeted by winter ice anglers, according to Heath Benike, DNR fish biologist for Barron and Polk counties.

Northern pike are common on most inland lakes, rivers and larger warmwater streams. Anglers typically fish in 3-10 feet of water located near a aquatic plant bed or near some type of lake feature such as a point or large backwater bay where pike are likely cruising or sitting patiently waiting to ambush prey, Benike says.

Anglers typically use tip-ups, baited with a golden shiner or white sucker. Tip-ups are spaced out in various depth ranges and an angler or group of anglers will target an area that appears to have the potential to hold a northern pike. In addition, many lakes that hold good pike numbers also harbor good largemouth bass numbers so both species are typically caught on tip-ups to keep an angler guessing what's on the other end of the line.

Since 1995, DNR has had experimental regulations in place on several waters in northwestern Wisconsin. "Our data indicates that many of these regulations appear to have increased the quality and size structure of the northern pike fishery," he says. Dissolved oxygen levels are currently good on many lakes because of the limited snow cover, the higher dissolved oxygen levels will also keep fish more active, he says.

Recently finalized and updated results from the statewide mail survey, conducted by a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point graduate student under contract with DNR, estimated that anglers caught 69,445,957 fish in the 2000-2001 license year. About 18 of the total catch and 23 percent of the total harvest came during the winter.

Statewide annual and winter catch and harvest on inland waters, 2000-2001 mail survey

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Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources