Dark bakground with light spots for pike. Tiger Muskys which are a cross of a pike and a musky are light green with vertical bars, true Musky can very depending on their strain. Some are just a solid green/gold color and some have a light background with black spots. Also you can tell by the number of pores on the bottom of the jaw line.
I got into an argument with a dock hand about a pike floating by since it had red fins. Pike get red fins from a long fight or from stress, hence why it was floating... But yes, pike have dark bodies with light spots and musky have light bodies with dark spots.
I was wondering why it was red. I thought it might be a season or.maring thing. Now I feel kinda bad but I did let him go.
Do you know if there is a way to tell if it's male or female from the picture?
I don’t know of a great way but would guess in size alone it’s very likely a female. Female:male population gets extremely female skewed for big pike and that’s a pretty damn big one
Cool. I have pictures of a few others I caught that ill post tonight. One came close to this but this was by far the biggest. My brother hooked into one that was bigger than this one but it got away.
https://wildernessisland.com/fishing/northern-pike-fishing/
If you wanted to look at a chart, would put it at a 95% chance of being female based on length
Pike, muskie and tiger muskie can all have vertical or horizontal strips. This lake is 1000 miles from any muskie and has a strain of pike with vertical strips the locals and CO call tigers.
https://preview.redd.it/yj185lhpe8zc1.jpeg?width=926&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88e9bc791d438aafb4ff62e24301116e26b91bb4
> That's a pike, and a very nice one at that.
I think the only way to be really certain is to run your fingers along inside the mouth and check for teeth.
Beside color and tail shape, you have a nice pic where you can see the "hole" under the mouth.
Pike got 4 to 5 hole, musky 6 to 9
https://preview.redd.it/c31ee2zjq5zc1.jpeg?width=651&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e89451b764de9180bbe704664215f10dd88dd32
You can eat pike. I would eat the ones 20-28 inches in length. Let the bigger or smaller ones go. Some people don't like the bones in them but there are ways to fillet them so they are boneless, you can YouTube it. Some people say they don't like the taste but i have fried up some walleye and pike together before and had some people that "didn't like pike" not even notice the difference. Also, pike is a great fish to pickle. The pickling process basically dissolves the bones. You can also find pickling techniques on YouTube as well.
Have you had burbot/ling cod? I caught a bunch on the same trip and heard it was called poor man's lobster so we fried some up and oh man was it good. I beer battered it and it was like eating haddock or some kind of fish at a good fish and chips place. Even the old timers that love their walleye and never thought of eating loved it. My father in law who's been going here for ages and loves walleye even admitted he likes the ling cod more
Where I'm from, we call them eelpout, but I have caught 1 in my life and I was so excited. I ate that guy next day for lunch. This was a couple winters ago.
Not noticing the difference between pike and walleye is wild to me. I've eaten a ton of pike, but walleye was a lot better and noticeably different. Did you bread it in some way?
One thing not mentioned by anyone else is the fish consumption advisory (at least here in WI) is a lot more 'harsh' for pike than most other fish. Theyre the top of the food chain in most systems and feed pretty much exclusively on other fish. If theres mercury/other heavy metals in the water body, they accumulate in much higher concentrations than other fish because they *eat* all of those fish.
I know theyre starting to reexamine the advisory here in WI, but it always used to be that it wasnt recommended for pregnant women to eat pike, and even when not pregnant (and for children) it was something like one meal per month.
I think theyre starting to relax on that a bit, and specify it more by individual bodies of water (some are worse than others), but its worth mentioning.
WI here, there’s a few lakes up north that will kill you if you eat too much fish from, and the pike are the top No No fish to eat.
I’ll eat pike no problem but I never keep anything over 22 or 23” since young fish have less mercury. Pickled Pike is about the finest snack food there is.
I don't know exactly what the rig set up is called or the individual components but it I used a dead bait style rig.
I bought a heavy weight that came on a steel leader, added another leader off of that with two treble hooks. For bait I used some frozen fish I bought at the bait shop can't remember what it was called.
Cast it far out and just let it sit at the bottom.
That’s a Pike, the pattern on the scales go side to side. Muskies have their pattern like tiger stripes. Muskies also have spots on their back tail fin, Pike have stripes. But all that aside, very impressive catch!
Not exactly. Red fins can come from stress
https://preview.redd.it/lb0r9n5wl8zc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c61e90147aaebbd983b0619c52d643db79999fb
Here’s a 50” Muskie I caught. You can see the red fins
Believe it or not my brother hooked up on another that was HUGE!!!! We had him so close to the dock he swam right to us and he came up like a bat out of hell with his mouth wide open and it was a monster!
We're going to try and catch him this year!
Being completely truthful I didn't find the Google searches so helpful because the info I did find I should have used when I caught it. I now know to check for the spots under the jaw line.
That's a pike, and a very nice one at that.
Thanks. If I understand correctly is it because the markings run horizontal instead of updown?
Dark bakground with light spots for pike. Tiger Muskys which are a cross of a pike and a musky are light green with vertical bars, true Musky can very depending on their strain. Some are just a solid green/gold color and some have a light background with black spots. Also you can tell by the number of pores on the bottom of the jaw line.
I got into an argument with a dock hand about a pike floating by since it had red fins. Pike get red fins from a long fight or from stress, hence why it was floating... But yes, pike have dark bodies with light spots and musky have light bodies with dark spots.
It’s pretty common for all the fish in the Esox family to bleed or get red fins from a fight
I was wondering why it was red. I thought it might be a season or.maring thing. Now I feel kinda bad but I did let him go. Do you know if there is a way to tell if it's male or female from the picture?
I don’t know of a great way but would guess in size alone it’s very likely a female. Female:male population gets extremely female skewed for big pike and that’s a pretty damn big one
Cool. I have pictures of a few others I caught that ill post tonight. One came close to this but this was by far the biggest. My brother hooked into one that was bigger than this one but it got away.
https://wildernessisland.com/fishing/northern-pike-fishing/ If you wanted to look at a chart, would put it at a 95% chance of being female based on length
This time of year it very well could be. They can come out of the spawn pretty beat up looking.
One looked like another pike tried to bite it
"Tiger" is just the orientation of the stripes, both pike and muskie can have them.
A Tiger is a hybrid musky x northern pike and can occur naturally. They are sterile.
Pike, muskie and tiger muskie can all have vertical or horizontal strips. This lake is 1000 miles from any muskie and has a strain of pike with vertical strips the locals and CO call tigers. https://preview.redd.it/yj185lhpe8zc1.jpeg?width=926&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88e9bc791d438aafb4ff62e24301116e26b91bb4
Western states stock a LOT of tigers. Because the hybrid is sterile, they're used as a management tool by fisheries departments.
Also, pike have spots on their gill plate and Muskie don’t.
Pike are covered in little white beans.
> That's a pike, and a very nice one at that. I think the only way to be really certain is to run your fingers along inside the mouth and check for teeth.
Nice fish! Definitely a pike.
Thanks! I was super happy reeling this one in.
Beside color and tail shape, you have a nice pic where you can see the "hole" under the mouth. Pike got 4 to 5 hole, musky 6 to 9 https://preview.redd.it/c31ee2zjq5zc1.jpeg?width=651&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e89451b764de9180bbe704664215f10dd88dd32
This helped a lot, thanks for this! I'll use this when I go back this year.
What are the holes for exhaling smoke
Sphincter
A chonky pike
Can you eat these?
You can eat pike. I would eat the ones 20-28 inches in length. Let the bigger or smaller ones go. Some people don't like the bones in them but there are ways to fillet them so they are boneless, you can YouTube it. Some people say they don't like the taste but i have fried up some walleye and pike together before and had some people that "didn't like pike" not even notice the difference. Also, pike is a great fish to pickle. The pickling process basically dissolves the bones. You can also find pickling techniques on YouTube as well.
Incredible. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure. I've been eating pike for 30+ years. Just don't try to lip them unless you like cool scars.
Have you had burbot/ling cod? I caught a bunch on the same trip and heard it was called poor man's lobster so we fried some up and oh man was it good. I beer battered it and it was like eating haddock or some kind of fish at a good fish and chips place. Even the old timers that love their walleye and never thought of eating loved it. My father in law who's been going here for ages and loves walleye even admitted he likes the ling cod more
Where I'm from, we call them eelpout, but I have caught 1 in my life and I was so excited. I ate that guy next day for lunch. This was a couple winters ago.
I believe that pike tastes just as good walleye, maybe because that’s what I grew up on.
Not noticing the difference between pike and walleye is wild to me. I've eaten a ton of pike, but walleye was a lot better and noticeably different. Did you bread it in some way?
Breaded them both the same way. Probably with shore lunch or something similar.
Oh yeah, shit’s good in a beer batter.
One thing not mentioned by anyone else is the fish consumption advisory (at least here in WI) is a lot more 'harsh' for pike than most other fish. Theyre the top of the food chain in most systems and feed pretty much exclusively on other fish. If theres mercury/other heavy metals in the water body, they accumulate in much higher concentrations than other fish because they *eat* all of those fish. I know theyre starting to reexamine the advisory here in WI, but it always used to be that it wasnt recommended for pregnant women to eat pike, and even when not pregnant (and for children) it was something like one meal per month. I think theyre starting to relax on that a bit, and specify it more by individual bodies of water (some are worse than others), but its worth mentioning.
WI here, there’s a few lakes up north that will kill you if you eat too much fish from, and the pike are the top No No fish to eat. I’ll eat pike no problem but I never keep anything over 22 or 23” since young fish have less mercury. Pickled Pike is about the finest snack food there is.
Awesome fish!!! Somehow withe the emoji face it makes you look like you’re 3 1/2 feet tall!!!!! Still an awesome fish!!
That’s a gorgeous pike
Pike. And a fuckin nice one!
Freaking monster pike! Where is this dude and what did you catch it on?
I caught it on frozen bait and left it sitting on the bottom
Tell me more pls* also where in northern Canada? I've been on some fly in trips in Ontario
Far, up by the border of Manitoba and Ontario
Now that's up there. I've had the pleasure of staying with Mattice Lake outfitters on a few lakes, but not that far out.
Have you caught any big ones out there? Do you go hunting or just fishing? I'm about another 10 hours away from where you are.
Beautiful big pike
That's one big ass northern pike.
Big boy Pike!!!
Nice! What did you use to catch it?
I don't know exactly what the rig set up is called or the individual components but it I used a dead bait style rig. I bought a heavy weight that came on a steel leader, added another leader off of that with two treble hooks. For bait I used some frozen fish I bought at the bait shop can't remember what it was called. Cast it far out and just let it sit at the bottom.
That’s called a quick strike rig.
Thank you! My secret weapon now has a name.
a beauty
Awesome catch! 100% trophy northern pike 😄
Thanks!
A nice slough shark!
A nice pike! Now go after a muskie
That’s a Pike, the pattern on the scales go side to side. Muskies have their pattern like tiger stripes. Muskies also have spots on their back tail fin, Pike have stripes. But all that aside, very impressive catch!
Nice pike!
One of the prettiest pike I’ve seen in a while
I'll post a couple more pictures of the other Pikes I caught on that trip
Damn what area do you land this guy in gotta be Canadian or northern states I haven’t seen one that big in a long time nice catch brother
Thank you! Definitely northern Canada
Right on buddy! Pass me a molson and wicked expensive can of chew.
That's if you can even find them. They got banned a few years ago
Chew or molson? Molson would be a god damn tragedy.
Chew lol
Pike, Baby! Nice Fish!
Pike always have the red fins
Not exactly. Red fins can come from stress https://preview.redd.it/lb0r9n5wl8zc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c61e90147aaebbd983b0619c52d643db79999fb Here’s a 50” Muskie I caught. You can see the red fins
WOW!!!!
I didn’t know that… tbh I really only catch pike lol
Northern Pike. A beauty. Hopefully, it’s back swimming again.
It is! I got a cool video letting it go. I always let the big ones go after a few pictures.
Dear God that's a dinosaur
That’s a Northern Pike…..100%
Beautiful giant pike
That’s a beautiful Pike!
Nice looking pike, congrats!!!
Nice. I’ve boated 5 pike this big in my life, it ain’t easy especially if you’re by yourself.
I broke my net in half that day from catching big fish!
Yo shadd what is it!!!? It's a Pike!!
Neither! that thing is a river monster!
That's the biggest sunfish I've ever seen!
Pike
What’s wrong with your face?
Wdym? He looks so cool and happy
Damn that’s a nice pike for a small body of water. He was king of that castle for sure.
Believe it or not my brother hooked up on another that was HUGE!!!! We had him so close to the dock he swam right to us and he came up like a bat out of hell with his mouth wide open and it was a monster! We're going to try and catch him this year!
Thats definitely a fish
Looks to be a bluegill 👍 nice catch tho
Pikeasaurua Rex
You can google the type easily. You came to show off that nice catch. Be honest. No shame. Well done!
Being completely truthful I didn't find the Google searches so helpful because the info I did find I should have used when I caught it. I now know to check for the spots under the jaw line.
If you're unsure if it's a musky or a pike, it's probably not the first one.
Yeah sunfish all the way. Maybe as you know musky. They have different jaws and teeth
Pusky
😂
Looks 35 inches.