One of my favorite local lakes is full of pickerel. The large mouth bass fishing is pretty good but I keep thinking that if there were less pickerel competing for the forage, there would be more and larger bass. Don't get me wrong, pickerel can be fun to catch and, on those real slow days, I appreciate any fish that wants to give me a tug. But I get ticked when fishing in a tourney there and you can't get passed the pickerel to catch a bass.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a little "kill and release" for some of these toothy critters but something inside keeps telling me this isn't for me to fool with.

Any feelings pro/con?????

Why would you want to kill fish? :-?

Wow , you must hate them pretty bad!!!!!!!!!

Why would you want to kill fish? :-?

Because they taste GOOOOODDDD!!!!  

Why would you want to kill fish? :-?

I hate to break this to you, but fish kill fish. When an over abundance of pickerel start to take a toll on bass fry or stunt bass growth because of over competition for available forage, I simply was wondering about action that could be taken that would improve the situation for the bass.

Wow , you must hate them pretty bad!!!!!!!!!

LoL

Nitro, unless this is a private lake you shouldn't do any thing.

The only time I would suggest "fixing" a lake/pond is when all species are becoming sick, unhealthy or dying...

Since this is your thread I will give you a suggestion or two anyway

If you know someone who would appreciate a pickerel meal then by all means catch a few every other week or so and kindly deliver the fresh fish to that person...

You could also transport the pickerel into another body of water preferably one that is larger and already holds pickerel...

Bass do eat small baby pickerel as well as other fish species..

Most lakes ponds and reservoirs  (man made) were not made just for BASS fishing.

I am pretty much a Bass angler but, it frustrates me when people try to modify public lakes for there benefit.

Why would you want to kill fish? :-?

I hate to break this to you, but fish kill fish. When an over abundance of pickerel start to take a toll on bass fry or stunt bass growth because of over competition for available forage, I simply was wondering about action that could be taken that would improve the situation for the bass.

Why don't you contact your division of wildlife and see if they have any programs set up to control productivity of lakes relating to bass.

You could also transport the pickerel into another body of water preferably one that is larger and already holds pickerel...

Hit the brakes! lol

It's against the law in Massachusetts to transport fish without a permit.  

Kill em all

Isn 't it ILLEGAL to kill fish over your limit just because you don 't like 'em ?

What you are talking about doing to a game fish in Iowa would get you a nice fat ticket for every fish for violating the Wanton Waste Law :-[

You could also transport the pickerel into another body of water preferably one that is larger and already holds pickerel...

I don't want to see you bringing them to my lake or there might be two illegal activities going on.

lol surfer

I never said to sneak them out to another lake

What about those bad a!! pickerel anglers, what would they think about your killing deeds!

As was stated before you could/should call your local wildlife/fish and game management and explain the "issue"

dont EVER, EVER, EVER transport fish from public lake to public lake. EVER!!!!

I guess I could be wrong but, I have done it for a long time and never noticed any effects on the waters I fish

How about a bowfin (grinnel is what we call them in the south)? I bust them in the head with a paddle when I catch one, not because I hate them or there not fun to catch because they are. But mostly because they demolish whatever you catch them on.

Anything exotic or has teeth gets killed, except gar and pickeral.

Why don't you contact your division of wildlife and see if they have any programs set up to control productivity of lakes relating to bass.

Yup. Anything funky I see that I KNOW isn't supposed to be wherever I'm fishing I bag and bring to the nearest Fish & Game Officer (which I always run into) or call them and they usually come right out. In my opinion, its wrong to mess with the species that do belong there. However, if you think about it, in NH, the pickerel are native, not the bass. Large and Smallmouth were all introduced. The pickerel is the native and the bass are intruding.

Just a thought.

i would say don't kill them and leave them there (that could be a mess) and i don't think you should kill them unless you are going to eat them. But i do kill bowfin (i call them dogfish) because they are a rough fish and the dnr in my area wants to get rid of some of them. They prey heavily on the game fish