Pesky pike netted to save trout</MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 3:13 p.m. Thursday, May 8, 2003

Pesky pike netted to save trout
In an attempt to preserve stocks of rainbow trout in Southcentral lakes for fishermen, The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has begun to use a gill net to catch the fish's second-largest predator; the northern pike.

Matt Miller, Anchorage area management biologist, said the nets had been set to nab some of the bigger pike before the lakes are stocked with rainbows.

These pike, according to Miller, were illegally introduced in about 10 lakes in the Municipality of Anchorage.

The toothy predators are respected in the Lower 48 as a prize sport fish.

But the pike are now wreaking havoc on stocked trout populations.

"They were taking over," said Dan Bosch, assistant area management biologist.

And now Fish and Game is fighting back.

There is no bag limit for pike in Southcentral, and the new netting techniques are designed to spare the trout by catching the pike.

"Right now we are looking to see if we can control the problem," Miller said. "We don't want to have to kill all the fish."

Alaska Star

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