Passaic River Pike

[Esox Luciano]

Good post & you make some good points as well. However, these fish aren't newborns, I've caught some with scars on scars. Proper handling & quik rease is ALWAYS important! I've actually witnessed an acquired fisherman we know break a few of the codes of conduct that @suntzu stated. Didn't even see me but I was there. Definitely gotta get that pike tutorial going & circulate it, to every1!

Originally Posted by buzzbaiter

Best thing about the passaic pike is that they are restocked every year. I wish they could stock bass in there every year!

There's actually more bass than the past few years. Especially big largemouths rollin through! They're just hard to get to from your living room, Aahaahaaa!

[UglyStick]

Great post, I appreciate you taking the time to write it as this topic is one of my major pet peeves - I also encourage Rob and Matt to make similar educational posts as well.

For a variety of reasons I rarely post any of my catches anymore but I'm still out there several times a week and frequently see fisherman mishandling fish and especially using inappropriate tackle for large and/or toothy fish. In way too many pictures I see handling where the fish will probably live but is being caused undue stress for no reason except to get a picture. I mainly fish alone and rarely take pictures of the muskies I catch just for this reason.

The funny part is that many of the people who read this thread and are guilty of mishandling don't even realize it...

[Eskimo]

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Quality post Suntzu.

The Passaic is an interesting fishery because it's an urban fishery. The harvest of pike and bass is reduced in the Passaic due to some anglers' concerns about the pollutants in the water. So the primary cause of death for big fish is post-release mortality.

Some anglers are unnecessarily afraid of the pike's teeth. Over the years I've seen some awful ways of dealing with it. These things include:

• people just yanking their lures straight out of the fish's mouth
• a spring-loaded jaw spreader stuck in a small pike that opened his mouth almost 180 degrees.

And I don't even fish the Passaic that often.

Freshwater fish in New Jersey is a resource being shared by more than 150,000 anglers in the most crowded state in the nation.


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Suntzu,

Good to see someone who is more concerned with the conservation of a resource than tapping into it. We should all at least be conscientious of the points made and prepare for each trip accordingly. It's the same in salt water or fresh and for the many species we fish for. Think about what your doing and make sure you have the necessary tools with you to release a fish safely back into their environment. Probably the most important point of the many great points made is lose the treble hooks, they are not necessary and if a trophy fish breaks off with single or even worse multiple treble hooks stuck in it's mouth it's a death sentence which can be completely avoided. Especially with pike these fish are very territorial and once you find them there's a good chance they'll remain in the same general vicinity. I'd rather miss a fish a half dozen times knowing I'm going to have another chance at it as opposed to risk breaking him off on one hit and knowing the fish isn't going to get a second chance because he has a mouth full of treble hooks and won't be able to feed anymore. It takes no time to switch out hooks and it's probably the one thing everyone can do right away to have an immediate impact based on Suntzu's post. The only other comment I'd like to reinforce is keep your fingers out of the fishes gills! All too often you see pictures with people holding fish with their fingers completely inside the gill plates or holding it with one hand and the entire weight of the fish being held by it's gills and head. Fish won't survive that type of handling. Use two hands, one under the belly and one at the tail if you need to take a picture. Stay away from the gills all together. You wouldn't want someone sticking their hands in your mouth or down your throat, a fish can't tolerate that stress on their gills. If their gills are damaged, the fish will not survive. Imagine someone grabbing you by the throat and holding you off the ground for a few minutes. Your head would feel like it was going to explode and you'd probably be dead in 15 seconds. It's no different with a fish. Stay away from their gills, it's a death sentence.

The only thing better than catching a trophy of a lifetime is to see her swim away. Just remember every time you catch a big fish, if the people who hooked that fish before you didn't handle it properly, you would have never had your chance.

Suntzu, good job on creating awareness and I'm sure this thread will have a positive impact on maintaining a great fishery.

Dakota

[saxmatt]

I agree about keeping your fingers out of the gills, but grabbing a pike by the gill plate while putting your other hand under the belly to support the weight of the fish is fine. I prefer grabbing big pike by the gill plate especially through the ice because I feel like I have more control over the fish and it is less likely to start thrashing around and damage itself on the ice, rocks, boat or whatever other hard surfaces I might be around. 2 hands under the belly is good too but you don't have as much control over the fish. Either way it's good to kneel down and keep the fish low to the ground in case it goes bananas and flies out of your hands.

[NorthJerzyG]

I remember reading in In-fisherman it's better to lift them from the gill plate than grabbing them behind the head because you are removing less protective slime that way. As long as you only hold them vertically for a few seconds they are fine but the body weight, especially on larger fish, should be supported. Also, keep them, and other fish off the floor of a carpeted boat. That caused more fish fatalities during the study than other forms of mishandling.

Last, yes, their gills are fragile. However, gently sliding your hand into the gill plate and possibly brushing up against the gills won't damage them. It's damaged gills that kill the fish, not just slightly touching the gills..........

[catfishonthelake]

I hate to say that I am not the least bit surprised at the number of dead pike you're seeing. I've been saying for a long time to watch what happens to this fishery in 5 years. Without getting into the whole spot burning/secret spot ordeal, when you give a body of water that much publicity you are going to attract that many more anglers, a lot of whom lack experience of proper equipment and fish handling. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen up here of people saying "trying to catch my first Passaic River pike." And tons of reports letting inexperienced anglers know it's an easy target. I mainly target muskies now and am happy I stopped fishing the Passaic before it turned into a zoo. I certainly don't fish any "secret spots," but you sure as hell won't see my reports up here letting people know that I'm catching fish.

And the proper way to land and handle a big Esox is to have a proper net to keep it in the water while it's being unhooked, hold it firmly by its gill plate with one hand without touching its rakers and to support the stomach closer to the tail with the other hand, holding it horizontally, never vertically.

Tight lines to you guys and remember that conservation is the only way our NJ fisheries can survive. Our friends in Hackettstown can only do so much.

[saxmatt]

Originally Posted by NorthJerzyG

Last, yes, their gills are fragile. However, gently sliding your hand into the gill plate and possibly brushing up against the gills won't damage them. It's damaged gills that kill the fish, not just slightly touching the gills..........

True, pike are heartier than some people think. I've caught pike with all kinds of battle wounds, including a fat healthy 36" fish that had 2 of its gills completely severed and hanging out of the gill plate. Imagine how much blood she lost when the injury occurred and she survived. That being said, if you are catch and release fishing one of your goals should be to get the fish back in the water with as little damage and stress as possible.

[buzzbaiter]

Its hard to ruin a fishery when it gets ~40,000 new pike each year. Pike fishing is like any other fishing. Your going to have good days and you going to have bad days. I'm certainly not going to throw my hands up and say "its ruined" if I have a few slow days. I had a 40+ day about a month ago(32 were fresh stockies - <12"). Got 17 today. Most trips I only land one or two. Its just the nature of the beast and good timing(or bad)

Last, yes, their gills are fragile. However, gently sliding your hand into the gill plate and possibly brushing up against the gills won't damage them. It's damaged gills that kill the fish, not just slightly touching the gills..........

Yep. In my case i'm holding inside the gill cover but below the gills so I'm grabbing the body not the gills. And there is no protective slime to rub off on the inside by doing this. Gills are fine as long as you don't perforate them. Best case scenario and what I prefer - if time and space allow - is remove the hook(s) and just hold the fish in the water lengthwise and hope it doesn't get away. Only issue is some pike are too long to able to hold them and get a full side shot at the same time.

[Suntzu]

Thank you for the positive feedback on my first post. I think most fisherman want to do the right thing and either need to be educated on what that is, or peer pressured into accepting that with the right to exploit such a unique fishery comes the responsibility to protect and preserve it and we should applaud people here for doing so at least as much as we do when they post a picture of a big pike
Buzz baiter with sincere respect the fishery has fallen off considerably from a few years ago with this year's pressure twice that of last. Absent education and good practices in 5 years in will be hurting. Most of those pencils never make it to 30" they either get eaten by other pike (escapees carry the scars) herons/cormorants or are killed when they slam an inline spinner with trebles. I fished the P 67 days this year, numbers fine but quality fish in spots the held such in the past way down, other spots had them, spots where I have never seen another human being until this year. We just all need to be smart

I want everyone to fully enjoy this resource as it's magical. If everyone does so responsibly and selflessly, we and all those that come after us will have an urban jungle river system with a large apex predator to enjoy for generations; and perhaps F&G considers introducing pike further upstream in the passaic, in other rivers like the Rahway that are plagued with a carp problem