Admiring one of his bumper catch! (1 of 3)

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I do hope you are not upset by this image and are able to view the beauty of this amazing fish. It has the most beautiful eyes and incredible teeth. When released it swam slowly and gracefully away and with a flick of it's tail went off to hunt for lunch.

 

(Northern) pike ~ esox lucius

 

While passing by a fisherman on our local walk he pulled out a huge pike, not once but twice within less than an hour. This gave us an opportunity to look closely at this beautiful fish. The first weighed in at 23lb and the second weighed 24lb. We left him then so I don't know if he carried on fishing or not.

 

 

Length and Weight

Pike grow to a relatively large size; lengths of 150 centimetres (59 in) and weights of 25 kilograms (55 lb) are not unheard of. The heaviest specimen known so far was caught in an abandoned stone quarry, in Germany, in 1983. She (the majority of all pikes over 8 kg or 18 lb are females) was 147 cm (58 in) long and weighed 31 kg (68 lb). The longest pike ever recorded was 152 cm (60 in) long and weighed 28 kg (62 lb). Historic reports of giant pike, caught in nets in Ireland in the late 19th century, of 41–42 kg (90–93 lb), were researched by Fred Buller and published in "The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike". Neither Britain nor Ireland has managed to produce much in the way of giant pike in the last 50 years and as a result there is substantial doubt surrounding those earlier claims.

 

Feeding

The pike have a very typical hunting behavior, they are able to remain stationary in the water, by just moving the last fin rays of the dorsal fins and the breast fins. Before striking they bend their body and dash out to the prey using the large surface of tail fin, dorsal fin and anal fin to propel themselves. The fish has a distinctive habit of catching its prey sideways in the mouth, immobilising it with its sharp backward pointing teeth, and then turning the prey headfirst to swallow it. It eats mainly fish, but on occasion water voles and ducklings have also been known to fall prey to pike. Young pike have been found dead from choking on a pike of a similar size, an observation referred to by the renowned English poet Ted Hughes in his famous poem 'Pike'. Northern pike also feed on frogs, insects and leeches. They are not very particular and eat spiny fish like perch and will even take sticklebacks if that is the only available prey.

 

Sport fishing

Pike angling is becoming an increasingly popular pastime in the UK and Europe. Effective methods for catching this hard fighting fish include dead baits, lure fishing, and jerk baiting. They are prized as game fish for their determined fighting and have been food fish since ancient times.

 

Ref: wiki (extracts)

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