The northern pike, commonly known as the "alligator of the north", is a freshwater game fish of circumpolar distribution; in the United States the pike is most common from New York through the Great Lakes regions to Nebraska. However, the species has been widely introduced in many states of the South and West. The Northern Pike caught by anglers are often large (up to 20 pounds in many areas), and once hooked, northerns typically thrash the water surface, then make a series of powerful runs.

Northern pike primarily consume crayfish, frogs, mice, muskrat, ducklings and occasionally off-guard fishermen are also eaten. Generally, northern pike prefer one large entree as opposed to several smaller courses.

The northern pike is a very elongated, somewhat laterally compressed fish. The head is large and has a flat dorsal surface. The duckbill jaws have large, sharp, pointed teeth. The roof of the mouth has short, backward-pointing teeth. The entire cheek is covered with small scales, but only the upper half of the gill cover has larger scales. This scalation pattern is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the northern pike. Five sensory or mandibular pores are found on each side of the lower jaw. The back is dark green shading to lighter green on the sides and to white on the ventral surface. On the sides are many bean-shaped yellow spots, but the fins are heavily dark-spotted. The young up to 6-7 inches have light vertical bars.

No species has inspired more fables than the pike. Its malevolent eye and tail-drooping posture once identified it as Luce, the waterwolf. Anglo-Saxons compared it to that ancient weapon the pike, and thus it became Esox lucius, the pitiless pike. To account for its presence in unstocked waters, early-day naturalists believed that the fish were bred from weeds and hatched by the sun’s heat.

Another myth concerns its age. The famous Mannheim pike was supposed to have been 267 years old. Actually, their average life span is closer to 10 years, although the occasional individual will reach 25 years old. Females grow faster and live longer than males. At the age of 3 years a northern may reach 24" and grow to 45" weighing 22 pounds by the age of 25 years.

As to size, the 350-pound pike from Lake Kaiserwag was, like so many others, a hoax. The world record catch is 46 pounds 2 ounces, caught in Sacandaga Reservoir, New York in 1940. Many larger northerns have been caught in Europe, but never verified as official records.

But pike existed in medieval literature simply to attack swans, men and even mules, and to provide medicines (the heart and gall to cure agues and abate fevers, powdered jawbone to cure pleurisy, and the ashes of burned pike to dress wounds).

Pike bones were also worn as talismans against witchcraft. In Bohemia, which is authentically the land where farm-pond management got its start in the eleventh century, the sight of a pike feeding before midday was considered a bad omen.

Mystery, of course, has always been an important ingredient in angling, and nothing stirs the soul more than the abrupt arrival of a 20 lb pike behind the lure. (ah, yes) With baleful eyes and underslung jaw, it comes grimly to the feast.

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