[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.