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California Fish and Game today began poisoning a Plumas County lake in an attempt to eradicate the population of northern pike. Crews began dripping and spraying 300 gallons of rotenone on the creeks and other tributaries feeding Lake Davis. An additional 16,000 gallons of the organic poison -- deadly only to gilled creatures -- will be placed in the lake itself beginning Sept. 25. The poison will kill all the fish in Lake Davis, which will be restocked with native trout, according to Ed Pert, manager of the $16.7 million project. "If we don't get them this time, we will...

PORTOLA The state Department of Fish and Game says it wants to poison a Sierra Nevada lake next year to rid it of voracious northern pike before the invasive fish can spread downstream and devastate wild fish stocks. The department proposes to drain Lake Davis in Plumas County to about a fifth of its current size, then poison the remaining water along with the lake's tributary streams, springs, and ponds. A final decision is expected in January so that the department can begin draining the lake. The poisoning would take place next September. This would be the second time the...

<p>PORTOLA, Calif. (AP) - The voracious northern pike that have survived every effort to eradicate them from a scenic Sierra Nevada lake now appear to be winning the public relations battle as well.</p> <p>State wildlife officials poisoned Lake Davis six years ago in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the foreign fish they fear will devastate the lake's trout population and could endanger downstream salmon. They've since tried shocking, netting, trapping, hooking and even blowing up the toothy pike, only to see the population keep growing.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - State wildlife officials strung about four miles worth of detonation cord around a shallow cove in a Sierra Nevada lake Wednesday, then set off a thumping explosion intended to kill spawning northern pike with an underwater shock wave.</p>