Mystery boat's nighttime activity was solved when I got the following from Kevin Johnson today. Apparently there was legitimate counting and sampling going on. This first message went to Kevin from Nancy Buttura who rec'd it from Jeff Pereira. Apparently it was Jeff, or someone in his family, who caught this big pike.

"Caught 6/29/08 on a rubber worm between Fella's camp and smith's point (near the white barrel/buoy). The fish was 22" or so (around 2lbs). The fish was removed from the lake. The fish looked very healthy with no signs of disease or parasites. "

As you know, Kevin has been concerned about the pike being in Joe's Pond. He has kept the state informed about any caught here. Here's the e-mail I got from Kevin today and the reply from the state biologist:

Jane --I know many campers have been finding dead perch, suckers (and maybe other types of fish?) washed up on the shore over the past few weeks... here is what the Vt. state fish biologists
found out when they visited Joe's Pond and took an "electrofish" sample. (Kevin Johnson)

Kevin,
Thanks for the update on the pike. How big was the pike in the picture?

I visited Joe’s Pond on June 23, to look at the dead fish. We are pretty confident that the cause of the fish kill was columnaris bacteria. Columnaris outbreaks are a common thing at this time of year when the fish are stressed by recovering from spawning activity and rapidly increasing water temperatures. It is a shame that so many fish died, but it was a natural event.

We electrofished on June 30 to collect fish for disease testing and to update our information on the Joe’s Pond fishery. I’m sure what we found was no surprise to you – perch, pickerel, bullhead, rock bass, smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, and … yes, northern pike. It seems the pike are officially established. We only managed to net one pike that measured 22”, but we believe we saw at least one more.

Let me know if you have any other questions about what we found. I will be glad to answer them. Also, please keep me posted if you hear of any really big pike being caught.

Thanks again,
Jud Kratzer
Fisheries Biologist
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
1229 Portland St., Suite 201 St. Johnsbury, VT 05819

Office phone: (802) 751-0486, FAX: (802) 748-6687

So that confirms that it was the State of Vermont checking on the fish population here at Joe's Pond. Thanks, Kevin, for sharing the photos and all the info with us. I take it from Jeff Pereira's note he might normally do a "catch and release" except the pike is not really a fish we want here, so he didn't return it to the water.

If anyone else catches what they believe could be a pike, please let Kevin or the state biologist (above) know.

*****

This came from JPA President, Tom Dente today:

Tickets for the Bean Supper, Italian Dinner and Cocktail Party will be available for sale at the Annual Meeting. This is a good chance to get your tickets early to be sure you don't miss out on these events because they sell out quickly.

Annual Meeting
Joe's Pond Association Recreation Pavilion
10 a.m. Saturday, July 5, 2008.