Northern Pike

The northern pike is unmistakable: a long, cylindrical body, a flattened duckbill snout, a single dorsal fin set far back, and a dark green back fading to a cream belly with rows of light, bean-shaped spots along the flanks. Its mouth holds hundreds of sharp, backward-angled teeth that will cut braid and skin alike. Pike have five or fewer sensory pores on each side of the underside of the jaw and a rounded tail, which separates them from the larger, barred muskellunge.

Pike are circumpolar, native across Alaska, Canada, the northern United States and most of northern Europe and Asia. In the US they are most abundant in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the Dakotas, Montana and New York, and they have been introduced widely, including into Western reservoirs where they are often unwelcome predators of trout and salmon. They thrive in weedy, cool water of 54 to 68 F (12 to 20 C), with the biggest fish moving to deeper, cooler water in midsummer.

As sight-feeding ambush predators, pike hold in or along weed edges, fallen timber and drop-offs and rush prey in short bursts. They eat fish of all kinds, including other pike, plus frogs, crayfish and the occasional duckling. They feed most actively in daylight, especially mid-morning and late afternoon, and are not shy: a pike will often follow and strike a lure twice. Spawning happens immediately after ice-out in flooded marsh grass, so early-season fish are shallow and easy to find.

Pike are among the most accessible big fish in freshwater: common, willing and strong. They are a staple of ice fishing with tip-ups, a fly-rod target of growing popularity and the fish most likely to interrupt a bass or walleye trip with a bitten-off lure. Big fish over 40 inches are nearly all females and are increasingly protected by slot limits.