pike only species in a lake

munnum9

Is it possible for a pike to be the only fish in a small lake?

I know it seems strange, but we fish in a small lake no bigger than half an acre in size and only ever catch pike. We never see any other fish either jumping or even through the water when it is clear. We can see some pike when the turbidity is low??

Does there have to be a feeder fish or will the pike cannibalise and sustai themselves?

Any thoughts would be gratefully received

Munmum9

thehamo

I would have thought that fishing for pike would be quite specific , i.e. you would rule out catching other fish using methods to catch pike, thus you can't bev100% certain.

Secondly, pike definitely have been known to cannibalise others, but in such a small lake this would Most likely end up in a race to the bottom. Other food sources could be frogs, mice, ducklings, minnow, anything really.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

No there has to be other fish in the lake, i cant think of any reason why there would only be pike in the lake. Without prey fish the pike wouldnt be able to live, they do feed on small ducks, rats, frogs... but their main food source is fish.

What methods have you used to fish the lake? have you ever fished for other species in the lake?

tin79

It would be very unusual for pike to be the only species in a water as it is an unstable population structure.

For a species like pike who are almost exclusively fish eating from quite and early age it would become very difficult to introduce biomass into the population.

Larger pike would feed on the younger pike but (if memory serves me, pike have a diet to mass ratio of around 3:1 to 5:1. Thats means they need to consume 3 to 5lbs of food to increase their body mass by a pound.

So if there are pike only you would have larger pike feeding on the smaller ones but there is an inherent loss of biomass (waste through excretion) in the system. Very small pike will feed on insects and invertebrates but only when they are quite small normally and this will not add a lot of mass to the system (not compared to the body weight of an adult pike).

So in theory if you have pike only in a water the population would be likely to be in decline due to loss of biomass in the foodchain especially in such a small water. This would be unless the pike have switched on to an alternative food source (fowl, rats, frogs, newts) so it would be interesting here to observe their behaviour to see if this is the case.

I would actually be surprised if pike were the only species present here and I would think at the very minimum there will be some eels.

Next time you go to the water in the summer bring a large fine mesh landing net and sweep it through the marginal weeds. You might catch some fry which would confirm the presence of other species.

It would be possible for other species with a large intake on insects to live in single species communities (ie trout, perch, roach) but for a majority fish eating species like pike it is not so easy, unless as I said above they have adapted to some other food source.

Bizzum

As above it sounds unlikely to me.
I have seen situations where Pike numbered in the high 90's percentage wise of the fish population but relied on passing "traffic". Could this be a factor here? Is there a decent inlet/outlet?

munnum9

Bizzum wrote: »

As above it sounds unlikely to me.
I have seen situations where Pike numbered in the high 90's percentage wise of the fish population but relied on passing "traffic". Could this be a factor here? Is there a decent inlet/outlet?

Thanks for all replies, i fished there last weekend and only caught the one pike.

the lake has no inlet river, it lies in the bottom of valleys, i will take a photo next time I am there. there is a very shallow outlet river.

I have only fished for pike but have been told there are no other species by local fishermen. I have fished there maybe 8 times but never have seen any sign of other fish types. I will try feeder fish next weekend and let you know how I get on.
Thanks
munnum9

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

munnum9 wrote: »

I have only fished for pike but have been told there are no other species by local fishermen.

was it followed by "the pike have everything else ate" :P If its a land locked lake, then there must be other fish in there. To be honest, I wouldnt believe most anglers tales like this because a lot of them start with non anglers balming pike for eating all the fish in a lake when they cant catch any themselves! I know a few people like that

have a go on the feeder! Looking forward to hearing the results

EastTyrone

just out of curiousity, i fish a wee lough and catch nothing but perch, would that be a possibillity that there are only perch in this lake?

dodderangler

EastTyrone wrote: »

just out of curiousity, i fish a wee lough and catch nothing but perch, would that be a possibillity that there are only perch in this lake?

Not really depends on the bait u are using if you are using worms maybe perch is just more abundant if you are using spinners then it's possible that perch are just the top predator there

ch750536

Evalyn Fluffy Stirrup wrote: »

No there has to be other fish in the lake, i cant think of any reason why there would only be pike in the lake. Without prey fish the pike wouldnt be able to live, they do feed on small ducks, rats, frogs... but their main food source is fish.

What methods have you used to fish the lake? have you ever fished for other species in the lake?

Saw a documentary once about a lake in Canada where there were only Pike. Seemed the population exploded to a point where everything else got eaten, then they ate themselves. Oddly it is sustainable though.

tin79

ch750536 wrote: »

Saw a documentary once about a lake in Canada where there were only Pike. Seemed the population exploded to a point where everything else got eaten, then they ate themselves. Oddly it is sustainable though.

How is eating yourself sustainable?

On the above though it wont last. For a larger lake the decline process might take longer but it will happen. You will end up with a lot of smaller pike who sustain themselves on sources of food other than fish (Iwould guess even that will dwindle over time) but the normal population structure of pike wont sustain. I would think.

ch750536

tin79 wrote: »

How is eating yourself sustainable?

On the above though it wont last. For a larger lake the decline process might take longer but it will happen. You will end up with a lot of smaller pike who sustain themselves on sources of food other than fish (Iwould guess even that will dwindle over time) but the normal population structure of pike wont sustain. I would think.

Yep, the physics does not make sense, but that was the comment they made.

dodderangler

I wouldn't say that tho as many of us know bigger pike will eat smaller pike alOt but if there is plenty of small pike around its usually a sign that bigger pike arent plenty full
It's like derevara plenty of pike and plenty of roach perch trout tench bream and eels yet I've had pike take my smaller pike while reelin in more than a pike takin a roach or perch off me
Their a pickle of a fish to go for ha