State biologists were counting the pike they caught in a gill net that had been set overnight. They harvested 10 of the toothy predators, some over two feet long. Stewart thought their advantage was unfair.

Stewart, who now lives in Palmer, spent most his life in Iowa, where pike are regarded as a sport fish. Indeed, big pike are respected in most of the Lower 48 and parts of Alaska.

But in Southcentral Alaska, they're thought of as a nuisance - more than that: an enemy.

Matt Miller, Anchorage area management biologist, said the nets had been set to try to clear out some of the bigger pike before the lake is stocked later this month with rainbow trout.

Miller said another netting is planned later this month by state officials, who believe the pike are gobbling up too many of the farm-raised rainbows, which most local sport anglers prefer over notherns.

Earlier plans had been to not stock the lake at all. But Fish and Game decided to put at least some trout in the lake this year, especially now that some of the pike are being removed.

"We are only going to stock 1,500 rainbows here this year," said Miller. Traditionally, the lake is stocked with 3,000 fish.

Miller said the pike are an illegally introduced predator in Lower Fire Lake and in about 10 other lakes in the Municipality of Anchorage that are stocked with state trout.

"That's pretty expensive fish food," Miller said. "These guys can eat fish almost as big as they are."

According to Miller, it costs about $1.70 to raise a trout to "catchable"-size trout.

The epidemic at the lake has been getting worse in recent years, said Dan Bosch, assistant area management biologist. In 1999, about 3,000 trout were stocked with an estimated 2,200 caught, In 2001, only 366 were caught, while stocking remained the same, said Bosch. That year, however, the number of pike caught tripled to over 4,000.

"They were taking over," said Bosch.

So Fish and Game waged a war on pike. Efforts to net the fish are coupled with a push to anglers to keep all the pike they catch regardless of size. There is no bag limit for the fish in Southcentral.

"That's what we're here to catch," explained Neil Wood of Anchorage, who was fishing with Stewart. "We don't release any of the pike we catch, no matter how small they are."

Miller said pike shouldn't be wasted. If not caught for personal use, there are other outlets to get rid of the fish, he said.

Charities will take them or we will take them," he said, explaining the department uses them for dissection.

But the best pike is a cooked pike, according to the department's Web site, which lists recipes, including pike fillet on a bed of potato salad with pumpkin seeds. Directions on cleaning and filleting the pike can also be found on the site.

The state two years ago considered dumping rotenone into the lake. The organic substitute to poison stops oxygen from traveling through gills, killing all the fish in the lake. Miller said even though the substance is safe enough for humans to drink, it is no longer being considered for the lake because of the proximity to homes.

"Right now we are looking to see if we can control the problem," he said. "We don't want to have to kill all the fish."

Stewart said "controlling the problem" is his aim, too.

"We are going to see how many of those big pike we can get out of this lake too," he said, smiling.

Reach the reporter at gdart@alaskastar.com