PLACID LAKE - During routine monitoring in early May, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks discovered a northern pike in Placid Lake. The Fish and Wildlife commissioners declared at their May 28 meeting that the fish must be killed and reported when caught.
“We are seeing too many of these,” said Commissioner Tom Aldrich. “We’ve got to take every reasonable measure we can to figure out what’s going on and halt what’s going on with that fishery in Placid Lake.”
According to FWP, the goal of the kill order is to find the pike’s origin, population and viability in Placid Lake. The proposed regulation falls under Unauthorized Placement of Fish Administrative Rule (ARM 12.7.1501-1505) and uses anglers as a tool to manage unauthorized species through harvest.
Placid Lake anglers are now required to turn in and report their catch if it is a northern pike. However, they can keep any edible part of the fish upon request.
The northern pike is native to Eastern Montana. It is deemed a “cool-water fish,” meaning it can survive in a variety of water temperatures. However it usually sticks to shallow waters, according to Missoula Regional Fisheries Manager Patrick Saffel. Saffel added that wildlife officials first discovered the pike in the Clearwater River system in the 1990s.
From there, the fish have increased across the valley’s lakes and streams, both through the natural movement of the fish and human activity. Placid Lake had not seen any reports of this invasive species before but it joins a growing list where the large predatorial fish has found a home.
Saffel said the pike can be a daunting predator for western Montana fish.
“[Northern pike] can eat a fish ⅓ to ½ their body size and have a large mouth with a bunch of teeth,” Saffel said. “Native fish have not evolved with the pike - they don’t have spines, they aren’t avoiding them- so they are easy to eat for pike.”
Pike can also notice where salmon and trout breed or congregate and hunt those zones. For already endangered fish, the addition of pike in another lake risks large-scale die-offs.
“What is particularly concerning is our bull trout really can’t handle much more. This might be the final straw for them,” Saffel said.
Bull trout are listed as a threatened species under the 1988 endangered species act and migrate through the lake. Boles Creek, the last known tributary that supports the bull trout in Placid Lake, recently showed promise of recovery for the fish.
The new catch and report order now stands to limit the pikes’ spread in the lake. When northern pike were introduced in Milltown and in the lower Bitterroot, they quickly overran the native species and became too widespread for FWP to contain. Additionally, reporting will help measure how widespread pike are in Placid Lake, which is currently unknown.
“We have a very narrow timeframe to do much about it. Typically the way we find out any invasive species is in a body of water is an angler catching it and sending a photo or sampling it for FWP,” Saffel said. “You usually don’t catch a fish until there are a number of them.”
Anglers can call into the Region 2 FWP in Missoula at 406-542-5500 for more information on how to turn in northern pike.
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