ADF&G tells Anchorage anglers to kill and report any northern pike they catch

Anglers who hook a northern pike in any Anchorage-area lake must kill it and report the catch, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in its Anchorage fishing report Friday.

The instruction appears under the report's special species section, signed by Brittany Blain-Roth, the department's Anchorage area management biologist. "Northern pike are not native to Anchorage area lakes," the report said. "If you catch a pike in any Anchorage area lake, do not release it and immediately report it to the invasives reporting page here."

The directive applies across the Anchorage Bowl, not only to waters where pike have turned up before. Reports filed through the department's online invasive species reporter go to invasive species coordinators at ADF&G and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

Live release of pike is already banned under the 2026 Southcentral Alaska sport fishing regulations for the Anchorage Bowl. Anglers may dispose of a pike through lawful methods, including returning the dead fish to the water.

Pike are native north of the Alaska Range and invasive south of it. ADF&G's management page says eradication programs are underway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, around Anchorage, and on Kenai Peninsula lakes, because the fish can cause significant damage to salmon and rainbow trout populations. The department's Anchorage stocked lakes booklet states that pike were eradicated from Lower Fire Lake and Fire Creek in the fall of 2022. A NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center project record says crews removed the fish with a rotenone treatment Oct. 22-24, 2022, and found no pike afterward.

Another round of rainbow trout stocking in Anchorage lakes begins next week. Anglers with questions can reach the Anchorage office at 907-267-2218.