The 40 pound striped bass that used to live in the Piscataquis River will take care of any errant pike that might wander up there.

This is a description of 20-40 pound striped bass in the Piscataquis River from the Bangor Register in 1825:

"For a fortnight fires were raging in the forests north of Bangor. At one time nearly the whole country from Passadumkeag to Mattanawcook, on both sides of the Penobscot and Piscataquis, was a sea of flame. The roaring of the fire was like thunder, and was heard at a distance from twelve to fifteen miles. The islands in the river were burnt over. The country between Passadumkeag and Lincoln was devastated. The towns upon the Piscataquis suffered from loss of buildings, cattle, fences, crops. The house, barn filled with hay, and store and toolhouse of Joseph McIntosh, of Maxfield, were burned and the family driven to the river for safety. Other houses and barns, and saw-mills and grist-mills, were destroyed. A lad returning from school through the woods was so badly burned that his life was despaired of; hawks and other birds were killed by the fire; and the fish in the Piscataquis River were killed by the heat. Twenty bass, weighing from twenty to forty pounds, many young salmon, shad, trout, and other small fish, were found dead in the shoal water and on the shores. The fires were running in Bangor, doing much injury in the woods, and the whole country was filled with smoke."

Godfrey, John E. 1882. The Annals of Bangor, 1769-1882, in History of Penobscot County, Maine with Illustrations & Biographical Sketches. Williams, Chase & Co. Cleveland, Ohio.

Key word "Use" to be there.

The pike will get around a dam, if they haven't already. In all of this conversation, no one has brought up the pollution that the Ohio Valley is sending to Maine. That's damaging the ecosystem of the Piscataquis drainage. Global warming is heating up the rivers, lessening the fish populations. I fish the Pleasant River and the Smallmouth Bass are plentiful, also an invasive species. No one has mentioned the pollution spewing from the mill in Lincoln. All those pollutants get washed downstream and then as an added bonus, collect in the sediment behind the dams, creating a lovely heavy metal loam. I think the risk of Northern Pike is minimal considering the continued threats of currently exisiting conditions. I'd love to fish for stripers in the Piscataquis, or trout, or salmon.

Don't forget Largemouth bass taking over. I heard Pike were in Hadleys lake in East machias.. Is this true. I think Musky would be nice to catch also.

With all due respect to Paul Johnson, I don't think the risks posed by free passage on the river amount to much. I agree pike are a questionable exotic. However, they co-exist with brook trout, bass, walleyes, togue, and landlocked salmon in many Canadian water systems. If they actually made it up the Penobscot into the Piscatquis, I don't think it would be the end of the world. The benefits to the total fishery -- smallmouth bass, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, shad, sea run alewives etc, in my opinion, far outweigh any risk presented by pike. Additinally, I suspect the the open river is not the way pike will eventually find their way into that draingage. Morons with five gallon buckets, the same type of people who put them in Pushaw pond, will eventually put them in other places in that draingage, whether the dams are removed or not.

Hey "milomaine", get your facts straight before you make postings. The treated water leaving the Lincoln Mill is cleaner than the water fed into the Mill. The days of "pollution spewing" from that Mill are long gone.

jhardwood, I do have my facts straight. I dare you to drink the water coming out of the mill. Try this little experiment. Get into a boat with two or three empty, clear soda bottles. Go upriver from the mill, a couple of miles at least. Fill up a bottle. Then go below the mill and fill up another bottle. The difference will be amazing. The second bottle will be full of crap, sediment, stink, a lovely brown color. Try this experiment and observe for yourself. And anything that smells that bad cannot possibly be healthy. Did everyone else know that the mill could clean up that smell if they wanted to? The mill in Westbrook did.

As for the pike, they have existed in the St. Lawrence in harmony with salmon and trout and bass for as long as anyone can remember. If they're in Pushaw, they're also in the Penobscot. They're in the Belgrade Lakes system as well. In the Perkiomen Creek in Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, they used to catch record Northern Pike and that river was heavily dammed for ice in the 19th Century. Many of those dams still exist but the pike are rare. That river, like the Penobscot and the Piscataquis, floods regularly, giving any fish that wants to an easier chance to swim upstream.

Where in the Penobscot are the pike?

We need to keep them out of our lakes and ponds. It's bad enough we've got muskie. Pike and Muskie are not considered game fish by many Maine anglers.

You are all missing the point. We can restore the Penobscot River AND prevent aquatic invasives from expanding into the headwaters of both the Penobscot and Piscataquis Rivers. Simply put a trap and sort vacility in the bypass! It would also provide some local jobs for part of the year. That said, we are never going to make it like it was 100 years ago. Not going to happen and all you eco-dreamers out there, please get a life.

I agree 100 years ago will never be again. We can not change the past but we sure can help the future. We need just to make what we ALREADY have better and not try to change things or add things. Lets face it that we have two sides to every story and people with take sides. We should be able to come to an agreement about our waters. We need to protect what we have and not gamble with it. We have history with the waters that our biologist have gathered. This information shows that we need to protect our waterways. We can do this by a simple trap placed in the bypass of the dam. This way we can control the movement. We can see what the water holds, we can count and place those salmon over the dams that are on thier way to spawn. We can stop the other fish from moving higher in the water shed and at the same time control the other species. I agree their is a place for pike in the state, but they just are not needed in the Pscataquis River water shed. Keep them out of Schodic and Sebec. Work where they are and build a fisheries their, give the pike fishermen a fisheries they crave. So let get our heads together people and make this work. It is simple leave the pike where they are and control the movement of fish in the upper reaches of the watersheds. I just hope an understanding can be reached and everyone wins. This is a situation that both sides can win and we do not have to break the bank to do so.

THE MUSKIES INVADED THE ST. JOHN RIVER AND PEOPLE COME FOR MILES AROUND TO FISH THE DERBY. THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO STOP THE MUSKIES.

Northern pike and Muskies _ARE_ considered game fish. Regular old pickerel are very likely in those waters...what is the difference?

Stevey Dee: I have fished Hadley's lake in East Machias since 1972 and have owned a place on it since 1984. I have never caught or seen a pike there.

I have seen big shad while snorkeling and my son caught an 18 inch striper in the outlet but no pike.