Northern pike can’t get food stamps

FISHING — An angler took a shot at me in the Sunday Sports Letters regarding my Thursday column updating the northern pike suppression effort on the Pend Oreille River downstream from Newport.

That’s fine. All opinions are welcome.

But he insinuates that I “didn’t tell you” something.

Actually, I expected anglers to understand that if northern pike were left to proliferate in the river with consumption rates of more than 1 7 million forage fish a year, ultimately they would deplete the food base not only for themselves but also for the largemouth and smallmouth bass that anglers enjoy catching.

Leaving the non-native pike population to go unchecked had a brief window of excitement and prosperity and was already beginning to deteriorate into a lose-lose deal for everyone when pike suppression was enacted.