Pikeminnow Infestation On The American?

[Troutsource]

Fished Sunday 11-3 mind-river for steelies, caught one beefy wild 18-incher. Saw some gear fishermen catch some shad from the bank.

But the main "attraction" was a pod of 100-200 pikeminnows that willingly took nymphs. See attached below. I've never seen such a pod, nor have I ever caught pikeminnows of this size before. I believe they were spawning as some looked stuffed with eggs and others squirted ...ahem... when I handled them. The mykiss was right among/behind them (maybe waiting for eggs?).

Is such a pod of pikeminnows normal this time of year (first time I've fished this time of year possibly ever)? Or is it a bad omen?

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[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

During a drought cycle the lower American river gets very warm.

One year there was weeds all through the river, I mean big weeds to the surface below Howe Ave,

And there was tons of Pike/Squaw fish too.

All because of warm water.

[Rossflyguy]

Yup it’s that time of year for pikeminnow. They group up in big schools. You’ll even see groups of smaller males following the big females. Any system with a pikeminnow population has this going on.

[winxp_man]

Damns also attribute to pike-minnow populations.

[Jcolin]

Those look like the big squawfish I caught in hat creek last spring. strangely they fought really hard, whereas the numerous ones I catch down here on the Russian river are like reeling in a wet sock, even when up to 5-6 lbs. I was really disgusted to see them on hat creek. I have seen a lot of gear and fly anglers alike on the Russian kill them to try to prevent predation on steelhead and salmon smolt but have heard conflicting things about whether they are native or not to the river.

[matt johnson]

Hi Troutsource. Nice American River "by-catch" and photos but I am pretty confident you misidentified those fish as Pike-minnow. They look like Hardhead (Mylopharodon conocephalus) to me.

Hardhead are another Cyprinid species native to the Central Valley rivers and people mix up Sacramento Pike-minnow and Hardhead all the time since they look rather similar.

I think of Hardhead as the "trout of minnows". They are cool fish that act a lot like trout- happy in moving water and like to eat bugs. They are very much under-appreciated and far superior to pike-minnow in terms of sport. I have caught lots of them on flies- nymphs and dries. Folks that spend anytime fishing our 'warmer" trout waters like the Pit, NF Feather, or the lower ends of various Sacramento River tributaries have more than likely encountered Hardhead. Especially in the spring when adults aggregate for spawning and become rather feisty.

Jcolin- did you happen to be fishing below the barrier weir on Hat Creek last year? I have caught Hardhead out of that water myself. In fact they are probably there right now. Throw a salmonfly dry down there right now and you might catch a trout- or a Hardhead!

[John H]

Matt -

How about this guy? Pike-minnow? This was a bass by-catch today. I think the water I was on was a little too cold for the bass. Just a pack of these guys and probably some salmon smolts hiding somewhere.

https://i.imgur.com/zQUYnWk.jpg

[mattv-mcfly]

Yeah that definitely looks like a hardhead. I actually learned the swing presentation for the first time fishing for them. There was a huge caddis hatch on the high flow section of the Feather one evening and there were a ton of fish rising. I hadn't caught a steelhead before in my life yet so I was excited thinking I was going to catch my first there in that pool. I threw nymphs, dries, and my entire fly box with no grabs. I left that evening fishless and googled how to fish the caddis hatch.

The following evening they were at it again and I went fishless again.

It wasn't until the third try that I tied on a sparkle emerger, swung it through the run, and wham fish on. I fought it for a few seconds and once I reeled it in at the end of my line was a fat hardhead.

I was a bit disappointed but kept at it because a fish is a fish and swinging is fun.

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[Troutsource]

Matt, Thanks for the info. Do hardheads have a sandpaper-type skin (you can even see the bristles around the mouth)? Thanks.

[Tony Buzolich]

These guys are all the same to me no matter what you call them, Pike-minnow, hardhead, or just plain Squawfish. They seem to be everywhere in the valley rivers and they gorge themselves of smolt and fry of every type.

The sad part is they never get blamed or mentioned as a predator of salmon and steelhead smolt. Instead they blame the striped bass as the culprit and go on to protect these predators as a native fish.

They are so predatory in every river they inhabit numerous cities and counties have put bounties on them to help try and eradicate their population. I personally know of a show that played on Angler West focused on the Columbia River in Oregon. I also used to fish the Russian River quite a lot for steelhead. Over there the Ukiah Rod & Gun Club sponsered a catch and kill program tied on with Long's Drug Store. They would have people bring in dead squawfish in exchange for $$$ credits at Longs.

At every cleaning station/ boat ramp along the Sacramento River the water is thick with them gorging on the cleaned scraps of striped bass and salmon. They are a voracious feeder and with consume anything they can put in their mouth, Clousers included.
Tony

[PV_Premier]

I always thought of hardheads as being more silvery and pikeminnow as being more copper colored. But I’m far from a minnow expert.

[JayDubP]

2020 is the 20th year that there has been a bounty on pikeminnows on the Columbia and lower Snake River drainages. Funded by Bonneville Power.

2018 the top bounty fisherman made $74,000- pretty good reason to go fishing.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel/pikeminnow (WA Fish & Wildlife site with links to other related sites.)

Growing up fishing in WA-ID-OR we were taught to thrown them on the bank for the birds & critters to eat. Other fishermen would yell at you if you threw one back in the water. Somewhere along the way it became socially unacceptable to throw them on the bank.

Jim

[ycflyfisher]

I participated in a study to catch some cyprinids for a parasite study a fisheries professional was conducting and was told the way to distinguish between the two is to look at the length of the maxillaries. (PMs have bigger mouths than Hardheads) and if the mouth extends back to or beyond the leading edge of the eye the fish is a PM. Also if you open the mouth of the fish if there's a layer of skin connecting the upper mandible to the head of the fish, it's a Hardhead.

By my account, hardheads are stouter through the body than PMs but they don't get nearly as big as PMs do. PMs are more elongated in appearance. The fish that John posted looks like a PM to me.

The biggest Hardhead I've ever caught out of the lower Feather was about 18". PMs get substantially larger. Agree with Matt that Hardheads fight harder: every HH I've ever hooked I initially thought was a Mykiss, and I've never thought any PM I've ever hooked was anything but a PM.

I was also told that these cyprinids are native to the Napa and Russian, which I did not know, but they were unintentionally introduced into the Eel probably by an angler that was using PMs as bait.

HHs generally are not largely piscivorous like PMs.

[Fish Guru]

The fish Troutsource caught look to be Hardheads for sure, kinda cool as you don’t see them at that size too often on the AR. John’s fish looks like a squaw to me though, different mouth and scales than a hard head. I bet the stripes were on that school after dark.

[Tony Buzolich]

Whatever you want to call them, they're all squawfish to most anyone who fishes for stripers in local rivers. I agree that squawfish are a favorite prey of stripers because there are so many of them everywhere. My pev is blaming striped bass for the demise of salmon and steelhead populations when in fact it's a water grab by central valley farmers, and there is no mention of other native predators (squawfish) that do far more damage to smolt populations than ever thought of.

He's a couple of pictures of striper fishermen holding these predators:

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/Bill-squawfishupload.jpg (https://s22.photobucket.com/user/buzolich/media/Bill-squawfishupload.jpg.html)

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/Frank-squawfish.jpg (https://s22.photobucket.com/user/buzolich/media/Frank-squawfish.jpg.html)

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/009_zpslk9yhzvy.jpg (https://s22.photobucket.com/user/buzolich/media/009_zpslk9yhzvy.jpg.html)

I wish they'd put a bounty on them around here.
Tony

[John H]

This site seems to have every freshwater fish in California. Native and non native. Sacramento Suckers, pike minnows and hardhead are all there and all native. Apparently the pikeminnow was sometimes called the squawfish but there were complaints that the name was derogatory and was dropped in favor of the name pikeminnow.

http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/

[matt johnson]

John H-

Man, you take the best fish photos! You make it look easy...

Definitely a Sacramento Pike-minnow and a healthy-looking specimen who appears to have settled into his piscivorous ways based on the fly he took! Your photo partially shows the most reliable diagnostic to tell Pike-minnow and Hardhead apart- the upper lip margin. On a Pike-minnow the upper-lip margin is "entire" or forms a complete ring-like separation where the upper-lip attaches to the snout. On a Hardhead the upper lip margin is not entire but is interrupted at the tip of the snout forming a "frenum". if you have a fish in-hand point it at you so you are staring it down eye-to eye and gently pinch the upper-lip and pull down to inspect the lip margin. Cheers! Matt

[Mark Kranhold]

Had a 20+ lb squawfish follow my striper fly in years ago under the Fair oaks bridge! Bonk those fish!

[Jcolin]

20 lbs is HUGE! Ive seen them up to 8 easily...i release them now when i catch them on the russian after being told by several anglers that they are indeed native, but havent been able to verify that or not. Mostly i just have a hard time killing something and not eating it...there was a spot on the middle fork eel in mendo NF where wed hike into as teenagers and camp, i remember we cooked a pikeminnow over the campfire once and it was absolutely disgusting. Like eggwhites with a really gnarly aftertaste.

[John H]

Bonk those fish?

They are native fish living in their native water. I say let them live. If you want to help the fish bonk a dam.

[DPLee]

Very nice pictures of pike minnows! By the way, the name was changed several years ago from squawfish to pike minnow to be more sensitive to Native Americans. The origin of some Russian River fishes is an interesting story. From research for our upcoming new book, California Winter Steelhead - "Pike minnow (a.k.a. squawfish) are native to the Sacramento/Sa Joaquin river drainage. The native fish assemblage of the Russian River is somewhat uniquely similar to that of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river drainage. The similarity is theorized to have occurred from a geologic linkage of the river to the Sacramento River via Clear Lake, located northeast of the Russian River in Lake County. It is thought that several million years ago, Clear Lake drained into the Sacramento River via Cache Creek as it does today. This early linkage allowed native fishes from the Sacramento River system to populate Cache Creek and Clear Lake. Cache Creek was subsequently blocked by a lava flow forcing Clear Lake to drain westward into Scott Creek via Cold Creek and the Blue Lakes, and then into the Russian River. This allowed several native fish species from the Sacramento/San Joaquin river drainage to populate the Russian River." Over 50 miles of the Russian River drainage was chemically treated many years ago by California Department of Fish and Game personnel reduce nongame fish populations to enhance salmon and steelhead. Nonetheless, nongame fishes eventually rebounded from the treatment.

Dennis
www.dennisplee.com

[lee s.]

"several million years ago"
Definitely not necessary to go back so far to find the most destructive period, environmentally, to the river. Several decades should do fine. Through pollution and water robbing we have damn near completely decimated ANY fish sustaining environs in the river. What will live after we eliminate even the squawfish?
....lee s.

[STEELIES/26c3]

Just because a fish is native, doesn't mean it cannot become a nuisance when the habitat it shares with other native species is drastically altered and/or destroyed.

Unfortunately, the increase in range and numbers of native Sacramento Pikeminnows and hardheads is due to human intervention and habitat alteration and destruction.

The trend toward lower, warmer water, which has occurred in part due to 5 years of drought but mostly because of excess water exports over the last 25 years, has certainly favored the biological success of these cyprinids while putting salmonids at an obvious disadvantage.

Even in my lifetime, I have witnessed a steady increase in numbers of pikeminnows and more recently, hardheads on the American River.

In comparison to striped bass, which are mostly seasonal predators in the American River, feeding on salmon and steelhead fry and smolts... pikeminnows are present year around and consume salmonids in nearly all phases of their respective life cycles. They are known to eat eggs, alevin, fry and smolts as well as young adult steelhead and can do so before and after the seasonal migrations of striped bass.

Fecundity and biological fitness also put pikeminnows at an extreme advantage over salmon and steelhead.

Female salmon and steelhead respectively lay 5,400 and 5,000 eggs on average. A female pikeminnow lays 15,000-40,000 eggs.
Salmon and steelhead require water temps of 56°F or less for optimal survival of eggs. Pikeminnow eggs flourish in 64°F
Salmon and steelhead eggs require the digging and monitoring of a redd or nest. Pikeminnows merely broadcast their eggs loosely on to a gravel substrate and the eggs fall into the interstitial spaces.
Salmon eggs require approximately 7.4 weeks to hatch and steelhead require 4 weeks. Pikeminnow eggs hatch in 4-7 days.

Now, I'm not a fisheries biologist nor am I an expert in predator/prey relationships between cyprinids and salmonids but a lot of time on the water and a bit of common sense has suggested to me that an increase in numbers of pikeminnows and hardheads and lower numbers of salmonids is at least in part causation and not just correlation.

At what point do we intervene to mitigate for a population explosion caused by a prior, human intervention? I suppose that is the golden question here...

I would prefer reestablishing higher and colder flows on the AR to putting a bounty on the pikeminnows but good luck with that one.

On a recent tour of the Nimbus Hatchery by the Golden Gate Salmon Association, it was revealed that a temperature sensor and control device on the upstream side of Folsom Dam is broken. This apparatus is critical to providing cold water to both the hatchery and the lower American River in the fall when salmon migration and spawning is at its peak. The B.O.R. and Army Corps each task each other with the responsibility for fixing it.

[Troutsource]

Steelies/Mark, thanks for all the info, dire as it may be. Maybe the seals or stripers will gobble them up.

Flows are about to start going up: https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryRES?s=NAT&d=2020-05-11%2015:40&span=7days
DATE / TIME REL SCH
05/13/2020 07:00 1500 cfs
05/13/2020 08:00 1750 cfs
Showing 1 to 2 of 2 entries

...But based on what you're saying, that won't flush them out.

Better temperature management would be great. It would be nice if that new top release system on Folsom Dam could be employed in this regard.

PS the wild 18" mykiss I caught below the hardhead pod was fat as hell -- probably gorging on eggs. At least one creature was benefitting...

[STEELIES/26c3]

Steelies/Mark, thanks for all the info, dire as it may be. Maybe the seals or stripers will gobble them up.

Flows are about to start going up: https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryRES?s=NAT&d=2020-05-11%2015:40&span=7days
DATE / TIME REL SCH
05/13/2020 07:00 1500 cfs
05/13/2020 08:00 1750 cfs
Showing 1 to 2 of 2 entries

...But based on what you're saying, that won't flush them out.

Better temperature management would be great. It would be nice if that new top release system on Folsom Dam could be employed in this regard.

PS the wild 18" mykiss I caught below the hardhead pod was fat as hell -- probably gorging on eggs. At least one creature was benefitting...

There's a lot more to it... The AR historically dried up in the fall. The dams and releases have changed the dynamic of flow regime considerably. I am certain the spawning gravel projects are also making the river wider and shallower in many areas along the river which is contributing to warmer temps especially during low flows. You cannot add tons of gravel without first excavating dirt and expect anything less. The steelie you caught was likely full of salmon and/or steelhead fry.

[Troutsource]

Over the last 365 days, water temps on the A flipped from being below average to being above average in November. Now they're about 5 degrees above average. Most of the data is provisional so maybe this thermometer is broken, too.
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If you go back 10 years, it looks like 2015 was by far the worst -- peaking at about 72 degrees, 8 degrees above average.

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[Troutsource]

I got on a 45 minute striper boil in the rain this evening that produced a fish per cast and some BEASTS!


Doesn't get any better than that.

I'm in a BWO state of mind today but unfortunately have to work.

[winxp_man]

There's a lot more to it... The AR historically dried up in the fall. The dams and releases have changed the dynamic of flow regime considerably. I am certain the spawning gravel projects are also making the river wider and shallower in many areas along the river which is contributing to warmer temps especially during low flows. You cannot add tons of gravel without first excavating dirt and expect anything less. The steelie you caught was likely full of salmon and/or steelhead fry.

Talk about wide runs..... boy are there a bunch now! Just flat water where no fish young could hide in... or adult for this matter.