American Pike Minnow Infestation

[Troutsource]

Fished the American near Hagan from 6-8:30 this morning and caught a healthy mix of pike minnows and algae chubs on a poopah. Those pike minnows are voracious and they were also gorging themselves on tricos. I hope they don't devour the upcoming salmon and steelhead smolts. Hopefully the colder weather will push them downstream. I've never caught one before on the American, and the spots that usually hold steelhead smolts were infested with them. Not a single smolt today.

On the way out I ran into a gear guy who was cleaning a striper he'd just caught. He said he's been seeing a few salmon coming up -- but not by the usual route. They're coming up the slow water in the middle instead of the usual faster and deeper side channel.

Man, the water is warm and low. Praying for El Nino to do its thing.

[winxp_man]

The American really is infested with pike minnows for sure! I have caught them all the way up at sailors bar. I was doing some reading a while back and I guess the dams being put in is what spiked the numbers of pike minnows in the valley rivers. Either way if caught killing them is all you can do. I usually knife them in the gills and let nature feed on them.


As for el nino we need about 4 years in a row of this to fix whats going on in CA :/ But here is to hoping it will come in this year.

[Sheepdog8404]

I've been fishing the lower AR almost 3 times a week for hours at a time and all I've managed to catch are those damn squawfish... (Mark Kranhold can vouch for me)... I keep trying for steelhead but those little buggers always seem to find my fly before the steelies do. Sure hope they leave when the water cools!

[O.mykiss Hunter]

Hmmm.....this gives me an idea on the type of flies that I will be tying up for those huge resident stripers that inhabit the A

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Having fished the river for over 50 years, I remember a drought period when the river was very low and warm.

The weeds were growing very thick from Howe Avenue Bridge down stream with lots of Squaw fish or Sacramento Pike.

I think with the warm water they swim up from down below i the Sacramento River.

.

[Scott V]

One of California's few native fish. To bad people don't give them as much respect as they do to invasive species.

[matt johnson]

Hi Troutsource,

Not that it really matters, but my suspicion is that you are actually catching Hardhead, not Sacramento Pikeminnow. Another California native minnow, Hardhead are very similar in appearance to Sac Pikeminnow (especially comparing juveniles). Hardhead are very "trouty", and behave and feed just like trout in moving water- Some affectionately call them the "trout of minnows". While you can encounter trout and Hardhead mixed together in Valley streams, Harhead really come into their own in warm water (70 degrees +). Here is a link for more info if interested: http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/?uid=37&ds=241

Next "pikeminnow" you land on a small nymph or dry on the American take a close look at its upper lip- if the lip margin ends in a point at the tip of the snout it is a Hardhead. If the upper lip margin does not end in a point (is complete, or goes all the way around with no point), it is a Pikeminnow.

[Terry Thomas]

Thanks Matt. I've been mis-iding them for a long time as well.

[Troutsource]

Matt, thanks for the note. The fish I caught looked pretty much exactly like the the juvenile Sacramento Pikeminnow here (on the same UCD web site) http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/location/?uid=113&ds=694 :


They really didn't look at all like the hardheads photos.

And to clarify my original post. I hope they don't eat the salmon and steelhead fry (not the smolts).

Here's what it says about their diet:
"Juveniles may feed on aquatic insects and change the focus of their diet to crustaceans and fish as they grow bigger. Large adults are voracious opportunistic predators and may take prey anywhere at anytime. "

It also says, "Pikeminnows grow and develop slowly but may reach great lengths, and ages in excess of 16 years." So hopefully they'll suffer death by striper or drop back into the Sac before they're big enough to eat fry.

[Mark Kranhold]

I had a Sac Pike follow in my striper fly to the boat under the red fair oaks walk bridge years ago that had to be pushing 20+ lbs. I couldn't strip in anymore so I just twitched the fly but no take. Those fish will eat up anything they can get there lips on, I've caught them on nymphs,sculpin, craw dad , and smolt patterns.