Pike

	Scientific Name	Esox Lucius
	Other Names	Musky
	World Record	55LB

Description

Pike are long lean machines, perfectly designed for hunting and that fast attack approach. They are dusky olive green on the back and sides with rows of light oval spots. Perfectly made for camouflage attack. The have white bellies but this doesn't give their presence away because the eyes are another clue sitting on top of the head looking down the nose, which is the perfect hunting method for attacking their prey from below. The dorsal, anal and tail fin have round to oblong darkened spots. Dorsal fin located far back on an elongated body. Pike have long canine-like teeth. The cheeks are completely scale less  only the upper half of the gill cover is scaled.

Habitat

Pike can live in the smallest ponds to large lakes and lochs they can also live in slow deep rivers and fast shallow streams .Anywhere there is a reliable source of food you will find pike. Pike can and do cover large Territory while looking and hunting for food. Like all predators they do prefer some sort of cover, that's why pike can be found in the margins, around snags, tree and reed lines, holes and gullies in the river or lake bed.

Feeding Habit

Fish make up the bulk of their diet they will eat any smaller fish even smaller Pike but they will also take frogs, crayfish, ducks, birds, and mice. here feeding habits are simple if it is small enough to eat and it moves, try to eat it. If a Pike is in the shallows it will lie in a snag or weed and wait for food to come to it. If it is in deep water it will hang mid water under the shoals of prey fish and strike from underneath. They will eat any dead or dieing fish, which makes it an important part of the eco system to prevent disease from dead fish and help keep a healthy stock of fish healthy. .

Age and Growth

Pike spawn like allot of predators before there prey do, this is to enable the fry and young fish to reach a suitable size where they can start to feed on other small fish. Also like other fish the females are the largest of the sexes and obtain weights in excess of 50LB. the males are considerably smaller and rarely exceed 12LB. A female pike lays around up to 20,000 eggs per pound of their body weight, so a large specimen could be carrying more than 500,000 eggs. Pike are known to be fast growing species, but this is reflected in the availability of their food. For example everyone is aware of the grand specimens that come from stocked trout lakes. All that high protein rich trout flesh allows these fish to gain and maintain good healthy weights fast.

Tackle and Methods

Pike fishing has many methods from the traditional dead bait with static baits, drifting with dead baits, live baiting as free roamers, fixed paternoster, and now lure fishing with as sorts of jigs, spoons jerk baits and jelly baits.

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