We were fly fishing a local trout water tonight where the Brown Trout fishing seems to have suffered from Perch and Pike introduction. We were pulling out nothing but juvenile Perch from four inches to half a pound all over the loch on double and treble hookups and there seemed to be no fly or subsurface aquatic life apart from the juvenile Perch. Large Pike are now a problem on this water too.

Question :

Is it possible that the water is so overun by Juvenile Perch eating everything that moves that the Brown Trout are suffering from lack of available feeding leading to loss of condition and lethargy so making them an easy target for the large Pike ?

I'm very interested in your opinions on this matter.

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Can pike eat perch with their big spines?

now there's a thing, probibally why the co exist so often, trout become the food

I'm sure a pike would make short work of a perch, but at the same time, those big spines and hard gill plates are bound to be difficult to swallow!

eat the perch fried, make fish cakes out of the pike well mashed and mixed with smoked haddock.

Garnished with a sprig of whatever herb you're currently smoking

never tried perch? nicer than trout.

Perch are fantastic to eat. So are pike.
Pike improve if you leave them in brine overnight.

Perch were a common livebait for pike when livebaiting was widespread (although I've never done it myself) - I don't doubt that the pike are feeding on them and not just trout.
Pike eat perch, trout eat perch, perch eat smaller pike and trout. Trout will also eat juvemile pike.
Pike also eat (are actually the main predators of) other pike. The quickest way to have a small pike population explosion is to get rid of all the big girls. If you're taking pike to eat go for the 4-6 pounders.

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Pike have no problem eating perch. When I was a kid we had a static caravan in SW Scotland near Newton Stewart. My brother and I would catch perch to use as livebait or deadbait and the pike had no difficulty getting them down.
I became uneasy about livebaiting - it was becoming unfashionable then, in the mid 1970s, so we switched to deadbaiting. I also didn't like treble hooks and used single large sea hooks (4/0s) with barbs filed off. They meant we didn't worry about deep hooking the pike because the hooks came out so easily - unlike smaller trebles!

a few perch barbeque evenings