Has anyone had any luck trapping small pike in minnow traps? Or is there any technique or place to specifically look for small pike to net them (2-6"). Going to do a native tank and thinking pike (northern) and yellow perch, but don't know how I'd go about catching small pike.
Trapping or catching small pike
- Thread starter African_Fever
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second...northern pike are very bad aquarium fish easily topping 3 feet in length. what size tank do you have? you can really only keep them as adults in giant tanks or ponds. they grow really fast, so i hope you have a good tank for it as a juvenile. and also, dont do anything without checking out your local regulations on catching juvenile fish, just as the previous poster said.
tricky to catch. you can see them in the shallows, they look like floating twiggs. they are very fast but i have netted a few in the past.
I have caught baby muskies by simply lying on a willow tree limb that hung out over the small river I lived by and using a one gallon tin can with a white enamel lining. I would hold the the can under the water on it's side and watch as muskies about 3" long swam into the can and I pulled them out very quickly. I know, has to be a one time thing but I caught more than a dozen in a couple of hours.
I have no idea why they would swim into the can. I know this doesn't help you but if it was me I would get a red-fin pickerel. A much smaller fish, every but as toothy and cool as a pike or musky and much easier to keep. They even like warm tropical water. I catch them routinely with a dip net from shore. If you must have a northern pike I don't see why the same method (dip net from the bank) wouldn't catch them as well. Find a bank with lots of under water weeds and a small under hang in the water for the pike to hide under and take a large fine meshed dip net and quickly dip it up to the bank and poke under the bank and bring it up. It might take a while to find one hiding but that where they hang out. A seine would probably be better but it takes at least two people and the laws are usually less tolerant of seines than they are of dip nets.
I have no idea why they would swim into the can. I know this doesn't help you but if it was me I would get a red-fin pickerel. A much smaller fish, every but as toothy and cool as a pike or musky and much easier to keep. They even like warm tropical water. I catch them routinely with a dip net from shore. If you must have a northern pike I don't see why the same method (dip net from the bank) wouldn't catch them as well. Find a bank with lots of under water weeds and a small under hang in the water for the pike to hide under and take a large fine meshed dip net and quickly dip it up to the bank and poke under the bank and bring it up. It might take a while to find one hiding but that where they hang out. A seine would probably be better but it takes at least two people and the laws are usually less tolerant of seines than they are of dip nets.
I have caught pickeral using similar method. I walk the banks at night with a flashlight searching for a " floating stick " then I give it a good lookover before I scoop to make sure it is not a stick. I carry a large net and aquarium net and have caught chain pickeral from 4" to 12" and I have caught gar , warmouth , bass , minnows and all kinds of stuff. Trust me search from the banks at night!! and watch out for beavers cause I walked up on one and nearly s@#! my pants.
another thing, if you find that doing so is legal, then i would suggest looking in areas of rivers and lakes that have lots of lily pads, reeds, and weeds. you can almost immediately identify them as pickerel if they have a stripe thru their eyes. if they do not, they are northern pike
just because they dont have a stripe through there eye dosent mean they are a pike, they could one of several species
I'd look for redfin pickerel like Moontanman suggested. They only get 15" long, but they're fiesty. They live from the St. Lawernce River to the last two Great Lakes and a bit further north from there, since you live in Canada. Good luck finding them!!!