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Name/Relations || Range/Sizes || Habitat & Habits ||  Notes
Note: Rows of yellowish or white spots on sides.  More elongated then Muskellunge.  Be wary of teeth in its duck billed mouth!

Common Name:  Northern Pike
Other Common Names: Pike, northern, jack
Scientific name:  Esox lucius
Family: Esocidae (Pikes)
Related Species:  Muskellunge, Redfin Pickerel

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Range: Northern Asia, North America, and Europe, freshwater and brackish water. In North America, north of Ohio-Missouri Rivers  throughout Canada and Alaska, especially in glacially deposited Natural Lakes, the Northern Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes and tributaries.

Sizes:  Legends abound of ancient 11 foot long, 700lb fish, (notably a possible skeleton in a German cathedral) but 60lbs is a more likely maximum nowadays, with fish from 2lbs-15lbs fairly common.
 


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Habitat:    Prefers 60-65 degree F water, either fresh or slightly saline, in rivers, lakes, ponds, and estuaries.   Likes to inhabit slow or still waters in marshy areas near deeper water with lilly pads and aquatic vegetation, but can range widely in in water it inhabits. Also prefers clearer water, but can tolerate some turbidity.

Spawning Habits: Begins under the ice and progresses as ice retreats as water temps creep above the mid thirties F in the spring.  The larger female followed by 1-5 smaller males seeks shallow vegetation covered bottoms.  No nest is constructed, and once the sticky eggs are released and fertilized they adhere to vegetation, and are abandoned by their parents.  Artificially hybridized with muskellunge to create the Tiger Muskie.

Feeding Habits:  Anything alive that will go down its throat.  Ducks, mice, rats, frogs, snakes, crayfish, and nearly all fishes, including other pikes. Has a fondness for suckers and yellow perch in the 4"-15" range.  Can act as either an ambush or cruising predator, with large specimens solitary, and smaller specimens schooling by size. A voracious feeder and carnivore (live prey) in the extreme.  It will often stalk its prey from below before gulping it down, much like an alligator.
 


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Notes:  Praised, pursued, and cursed, anglers have a love/hate relationship with this fish.  Since it is such a voracious feeder it readily attacks all manner of lures, especially larger plugs and spoons, and will take minnows fished on bobbers and under the ice (don't forget the steel leader for larger pikes or you will loose your offering), and tastes good if cooked properly.  Its voracious feeding habits however, also make it hated by trout, walleye, and bass anglers and duck lovers.  Due to its indiscriminate feeding habits, it is well known to eat both game fish and ducklings (note the alligator comparison above), along with other non game species.  In some areas, especially in California and some of Europe, there have been efforts to exterminate the pike from lakes by using poisons.  
 
 

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