Fisheries, Subsistence, and Habitat
Publications Searchable Database
Search Again| Division: | Sport Fish |
| Title: | Movement patterns of northern pike in Alexander Lake. |
| Author: | Rutz, D., K. Dunker, P. Bradley, and C. Jacobson. |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Report ID: | Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fishery Data Series No. 20-16, Anchorage. |
| Abstract: | In 2011, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) began a long-term invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) suppression program in side-channel sloughs of Alexander Creek. To determine if Alexander Lake, at the headwaters of this system, served as a significant source of northern pike to Alexander Creek or other adjacent watersheds, a northern pike movement study was conducted on Alexander Lake between 2011 and 2013 using radiotelemetry. A total of 125 mature northern pike were captured in Alexander Lake and a total of 25 were captured in Alexander Creek; all fish were surgically implanted with radiotransmitter tags. During this study, few radiotagged northern pike migrated into the creek, and no radiotagged northern pike left the system. All northern pike that left the lake were later captured downstream in gillnets by northern pike suppression crews and dispatched. The telemetry project indicated that northern pike movements out of Alexander Lake were not detrimental to ADF&G’s suppression efforts. Between 2014 and 2016, ADF&G planned to investigate whether juvenile northern pike movements differed from those observed for mature northern pike, but this question could not be answered because juveniles did not recruit to the sampling gear. |
| Keywords: | Northern pike, Esox lucius, radio telemetry, radio tags, seasonal movements, migration, seasonal distributions, Susitna River drainage, invasive species. |