Pike Fishing

The scale pattern on cheeks and gills helps differentiate the pike species.

There are six or more pores on each side under the jaw of muskellunge, and five or fewer pores on the northern pike.

The Esocidae family of fish, categorically known as pike, numbers some of the most popular, aggressive, and important sportfish of cold and cool waters in the Northern Hemisphere. Six species constitute one genera in this circumpolar group, and they are categorized as pike, pickerel, and muskellunge. The three pickerel and one muskellunge occur naturally only in North America. The pike include two species, Esox lucius (northern pike) and E. reicherti (Amur pike); the latter is found only in Eurasia, and the former is widely distributed in North America and Eurasia.

All species have slim, elongated bodies with dorsal and **** fins located far to the rear, just in front of the forked caudal fin. The front of the head is flattened, and the long, depressed jaws and snout, when viewed from overhead, appear shaped like a duck’s bill. The overall bodily appearance is very much arrowlike. The rays in the fins are soft, the large mouth contains numerous sharp canine teeth, and the coloration is usually greenish or brassy. Pike are distantly related to salmonids, although they lack an adipose fin and do not look or behave like salmonids.

Pike, pickerel, and the muskellunge are solitary, aggressive predators. They do not build nests. In spring, the female scatters or broadcasts her eggs in shallow water where the males fertilize them. The young are given no parental attention, and the species, where they overlap, readily prey upon and compete with each other. Where their ranges overlap, some species hybridize, making the identification of certain individuals extremely difficult. This is compounded by variations in color due to water characteristics and habitat, and some fish having extremely distinctive body markings. Some northern pike have a genetic color variance that results in a markedly silver or bluish appearance, causing them to be called silver pike (see: pike, silver).

Pickerel are the smallest of the group, and only the chain pickerel is capable of growing to more than 5 pounds and no more than 8 pounds. The muskellunge is the largest, once capable of attaining at least 70 pounds if not more. The northern pike routinely exceeds 20 pounds in some waters and is capable of growing to more than twice that weight. The latter two are among the most prized fresh­water sportfish.

See: Muskellunge; Pickerel, Chain; Pickerel, Grass and Redfin; Pike, Northern.

Muskie

Scales on upperhalf of cheek and gill

Pike

Scales on entire cheek and upper half of gill

Pickerel

Scales on entire cheek and gill

Muskellunge