The Lake St.Clair Network: jb10 - Viewing Profile - The Lake St.Clair Network

They are a very simple pattern to tie. But if you don't feel like tying them yourself contact Eli at greatlakesfly@gmail.com. He ties great flies!

steelheadslayer, on 13 May 2013 - 02:58 PM, said:

Steelheadslayer,
The thought on pike not being the top predator has nothing to do with the forage. There is PLENTY of forage in the lake for them. The thought is when pike are the top predator of the lake there are no fish to harass them and stress levels are lower. On LSC pike get there a$$ kicked daily by musky. There are many more large musky than pike and they can be very aggressive towards pike. I fly fish for musky and catch a lot of pike also while doing this and have notice a lot of marks on majority of the pike caught. I asked about this. From what I got was this isn't a musky trying to eat a pike but letting the pike know who's area it is in. This can cause higher stress levels in pike compared to pike that are in lakes where they are not harassed as much.

Again this in not my opinion but I found it interesting and to me seems to have some merit as I have not heard other reasons for pike not getting above 40" on LSC. There are good numbers of pike and not that many harvested to have numbers of big fish be that low. Again makes sense to me but everything I have heard has been opinions and I don't really think anyone has any scientific evidence of one way or another.

This info does come second hand from a buddy who has talked a lot with a biologist about this issue. I will try to get more specific information from him. But I do believe this is just a hypothesis. The reason being is there is so much good forage and good environment for the pike that there isn't much other explanation. Pike do not get targeted that much on LSC and for the size of the lake we would see many more fish over 40". That's why his opinion is a slot limit wouldn't do that much because they aren't that fished for harvest that much to begin with on LSC. But again this is not my opinion. But from work I have seen first hand while at MTU on trout studies, stress can be a significant factor with growth rates and health.

This question comes up a lot about why we don't see many pike over 40" on LSC. There is good structure and forage for them. But bottom line is pike will really get that big on LSC even if there was a slot size limit because they are not the top predator in the lake. Way too many musky around and it causes high stress levels for pike. Unless the musky suddenly disappear there isn't much we can do to get larger sizes in pike. Just the reality.

Big ones do fight really well especially on lighter gear.

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