Why was it a sad day???

probably because as fun as they are to catch the arrival of what is basically a new super predator into an ecosystem rarely is a good thing.

I just got back from a lake in Canada that was 55 miles long and 3 miles wide kinda reminded me of Lake Roosevelt except they had sloughs with shallow water coming off it. They had the biggest Walleye I have ever seen and very aggresive. Average fish we caught were over 20" and up to 33". The lake is known for its Pike fishing though with pike into the 45" range. The Walleye actually hit 3/4 oz spinner baits and surface lures . Why? because they adapted just as did the other fish in the lake. Don't see that the Pike are going to wipe out anything in Roosevelt except maybe some of the cigarette sized walleye that the lake has way to many of and any other shallow water fish. The only way for the Walleye to get bigger in the lake is to have a predator that can keep the small fish in check. As far as trout are concerned your not going to see Pike in 30-60ft of colder water as a general rule of thumb. We see this all the time when people catch them and start getting concerned their going to eat everything, doesn't work like that. Everyone needs to get educated on these fish and not just assume their going to eat everything they come in contact with. Everyone should checkout some of the lakes back east that have state record trout, salmon, smallmouth, pike, perch,and walleye all living together..

It's from listening to tribes and fish and wildlife. Naive.

On another note I was right by the mouth on the 2nd. We hooked an 7-8' sturgeon on our walleye rig. Played with it for for a while then we broke her off. Have some cool videos of it. I noticed other sturgeon jumping nearby.

It would be great if those Pike would stay in Roosevelt but they won't. that's not the environment that they will thrive in. They're going to end up in the weed beds of the Okanagan river and the lower Columbia where they can do some real damage.

There are plenty of other predators in Roosevelt to keep the numbers of pike down, the smallmouth will probably eat most of the pike fry before they ever get too big. Growing up back in Wisconsin we had numerous lakes with a wide variety of fish including pike and muskies, neither of which took over the lakes. I would think that even in the lower Columbia the walleyes and smallies would be able to keep pike numbers to a reasonable total. The sky is not falling chicken little.

I agree CCTMark, Also its not a favorable body of water for them to spawn in with the big water level changes in the spring. Smallmouth in Roosevelt are also a top of the food chain feeder as well. The Smallmouth fly under the radar in most cases and people aren't concerned with them, but the amount of food they consume is almost worse since they are school feeders. This subject is almost a mute point at this juncture since if they are in there nothings going to change it at this point, nature will take care of itself just like it always does and everything will live in harmony like they do every where else in the US and Canada.

30"ers showing up in the Kettle river?? I gotta get up there. If you got 2 while walleye fishing, just think how much fun you could have if you targeted the pike, then released them to be caught again another day. Sounds like a blossoming fishery to me.

I grew up in upstate ny, which is well known for its excellent pike fishing, i fished for them for 15 years, 2 things always remained true for pike: 1.)pike were NEVER overpopulated in any fishery i ever fished, but were in fact elusive and could be very difficult to find at times. 2.) Pike are ambush predetors and couldnt be found in any deep open water (trout habitat)
Ill also make a point to say i fished ponds on ny that had chain pickeral(close relative of the pike) and trout living together, and caught lots of both everytime i fished them, they seemed to have a healthy relationship, and habitats typicall kept balance.