Private spearing lake

[polarispro600]

I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions that I have. I own a private lake about 8-10 acres big and about 8 ft deep. I would like to start stalking the lake with northrens. Now I'm not sure if the lake freezes out. I know I might need an arerator but those are expensive is there any other way I could keep the lake full of oxygen? Also do I need a permit to start stalking the lake? Any suggestions would be very helpful.

[thatoneguy]

hard to believe that small and shallow a lake wouldn't run out of oxygen pretty much every winter.

[Neiko]

Stalking is illegal but stocking isn't with a permit. I think you might want to call the DNR. You will probably have to buy the northerns from a private party.

[polarispro600]

It does have a couple springs if thy would make a difference for oxygen.

[Laska]

Springs help put a lot, I looked into northern stocking a little while back and for what you get the price ain't bad at all.

[BehindtheHead]

what will the northerns eat?

[Gordie]

what will the northerns eat?

aLL OF POLARISPRO'S DECOY'S

sorry I couldn't help it and thats a great question Matt

[polarispro600]

Was thinking of also putting in crappie fingerlings and minnows for food.

[polarispro600]

It's also full of leaches already

[fishuhalik]

give it a try & see what happens! i'd put fatheads & golden shiners in it too. they fare well in low o2 environments & make great forage. maybe put some gills & bass in too? a friend of mine stocked some bass & gills in his little spring-fed pond up by grand rapids, maybe 8' deep & 2-3 acres. this was about 15yrs ago & last i heard they're still in there. i think a big part of what causes winterkill is heavy snow cover & resulting plant dieoff. it might help to clear snow off during bad winters, but thats just a theory of mine.

[polarispro600]

Peas also thinking that plowing the snow cover off Would help also. Thanks for the replies

[hawkeye43]

baby fish Matt, You know better than that.

[Scott M]

Probably won't see many fish that fit between the tines just because it takes a fair amount of space and food to grow big fish and a lake that small has neither, but pike are low dissolved oxygen tolerant and are more likely to make it through the winters than say, panfish, so they have that going for them. The springs also help if that's true and not rumor. Wouldn't cost you much to stock fish with the permit because you don't have oodles of acres to fill. If you were looking for pike forage, I would lean towards yellow perch instead of crappies...better pike forage in general and also another low oxygen tolerant species.

Good luck with your project.

[BehindtheHead]

Probably won't see many fish that fit between the tines just because it takes a fair amount of space and food to grow big fish and a lake that small has neither, but pike are low dissolved oxygen tolerant and are more likely to make it through the winters than say, panfish, so they have that going for them. The springs also help if that's true and not rumor. Wouldn't cost you much to stock fish with the permit because you don't have oodles of acres to fill. If you were looking for pike forage, I would lean towards yellow perch instead of crappies...better pike forage in general and also another low oxygen tolerant species.

Good luck with your project.

da chise is there a number you could put with adult pike pre acre on a lake like around where i live? or how many pike can a acre support given good forage base? or can i get that info on the dnr website too. just looking for a wild guess.

[Scott M]

Best I could find for a stated per acre amount is 3 to 30 pounds per acre, or 1 to 24 fish per acre of fish larger than 14 inches, 1 to 5 fish or 2.5 to 12 pounds per acre of fish larger than 20 inches, and 0 to 1.5 fish or 0 to 7.5 pounds per acre of fish larger than 24 inches. That's from Pierce, R.B. and Tomcko, C.M. (2005) Density and Biomass of Native Northern Pike Populations in Relation to Basin-Scale Characteristics of North-Central Minnesota Lakes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 134(1): 231-241.

It's a big range and has more to do with morphometry of the lake rather than productivity, chemistry, or shallow water littoral areas. It also shows how hard it is to produce big pike in general; visualizing a food pyramid is kind of misnomer with pike, it's more like a wedding cake with a huge base (small fish) with a little bitty toothpick on the top (large fish). Big fish just need different habitats than small fish. In SC MN, big pike are in lakes with some depth and poor recruitment. So there is really a big range from lake to lake and it shows. You know there are numbers lakes in our areas with big catches in the gillnets and there are size lakes with very few caught but a large average size...that's a good representation of the big differences in fish per acre.