THE FISH

Size, Shape and Color 

The Esocidae family includes the pikes, the muskellunge, and the true pickerels. All family members are characterized by an elongated, torpedo-shaped body and a single dorsal fin set well back near the tail, leaving a long stretch of finless back between head and tail. They have large, flattened heads, somewhat duck-billed in appearance. Their eyes are yellow and their enormous mouths are filled with backwardslanting teeth which are replaced continuously.

The pike may reach a very large size -- two U.S. trophies weighing about 46 pounds were taken from Basswood Lake, Minnesota, and Sacandaga Reservoir, New York, while two Canadian specimens of around 42 pounds were taken from Delaney Lake and Lake Simcoe in Ontario. It is not uncommon to catch a 25- to 30-pound fish but many catches in some angling areas will weigh in at only about two to four pounds. European pike tend to grow larger and heavier than North American fish. Several European specimens weighed in at over 60 pounds.

The sides and back of the northern pike are usually bluish green, and the belly, cream or white. Adults are profusely covered with roundish or slightly oval light spots on their sides and very lightly on their fins. The juveniles, however, are marked with light bars on a dark background in their first summer. These bars gradually break up into light spots as they mature.

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