Pike - Esox Lucius

General: The pike is probably the coarse anglers’ most sought-after fish. It is predatory both in nature and appearance. The fish has a flat, broad, almost duck-like snout and an elongated, streamlined body with dorsal and anal fins placed well back. The colour of the fish varies with its habitat, those living in weeded waters being predominantly mottled green and yellow. Fish from brackish waters are more yellowish. Pike turn darker with age, old specimens becoming brown or even greyish.

Pike are the subject of innumerable fishy stories, with many telling of ‘the one that got away’. Establishing the weight of the largest pike on record in the UK is almost as tricky as catching the actual fish might have been. According to the Pike Angler’s Club of Great Britain, the record goes to one caught on a rod and line in Llandegfedd Reservoir, Wales, in 1992. That fish weighed 46lb 13oz (21.3 kg). However, there is also a Scottish record dating back to 1945 which refers to a fish caught in Loch Lomond that weighed 47lb 11oz (21.6 kg).

Habitat: Pike can be found in many water bodies provided there is plenty of oxygen and a neutral or alkaline pH. They occur in lakes with plenty of vegetation, rivers and creeks. They occasionally venture into brackish water.

 The Science: Pike spawn from the end of March to the beginning of May, usually in quite shallow water and often using the same places year after year. The spawning process can last several weeks and the number of eggs varies with the age and size of the female. A large fish may produce as many as half a million eggs. The eggs are sticky and adhere to plants, the young pike hatching after 10 – 15 days. At this stage they have no proper mouthparts and remain attached to the plants until the yoke sac is consumed. Once the young fish become free-swimming, they feed mainly on small organisms, but once they reach a length of 5 cm, they begin preying on other fish larvae and tadpoles. Once they have survived these early stages, pike grow fast, sometimes reaching a weight of one kilogram in the space of three years. Males mature at the age of two, females at four years.

Pike catch their food largely by stealth and lightning-fast acceleration, taking their prey unawares. A large adult pike will eat roach, rudd, dace and perch, trout and salmon, and even other members of their own species. They will also take frogs, newts, crayfish and they have been known to catch ducklings and small mammals.