Pike

Pike are clearly predatory, both in nature and appearance. They are very well camouflaged, with a green back with green flanks overpaid with yellow to cream stripes when young that break up to form pale cream spots along its flanks, that lead to a white belly: its fins being orange in colour.

The elongated and streamlined body of Pike have both their large anal fin and single dorsal fins set well down its body, close to the powerful tail fin to generate explosive speed. Combined with a strong duck-like snout set on a powerful head with large eyes giving binocular vision. The strong jaws are armed with a considerable array of sharp, inward pointing teeth to disable and grip prey fish before swallowing headfirst. The Pike is a highly evolved ambush predator, added to which it also possesses the ability to change its body colour after a period of time to suit a changing environment.

The Pike have a number of sensory sources to aid its effective hunting skills with its large eyes sited providing binocular vision, it has a groove stemming from the front of it’s eyes running along the snout which acts like a rifle sight, aiding pin point accuracy when striking at it’s prey. Added to which, it has situated along its snout and the lower jaw, sensory pores that are part of the lateral line: these pick up scent and vibration from its aquatic environment mottled fish being found in weedy environments and yellower fish living in brackish waters. Older fish tend to turn brown and sometimes grey as they age.

Pike spawn early in the year between February and late April, this being dependant upon water temperatures reaching 6 –12 degrees C, so may start as early as February in a mild winter or end as late as May following a cold Spring. Spawning usually takes place in fairly shallow water, with single females often returning to preferred spawning sites, accompanied by 2-4 smaller males, known as ‘Jacks’.

As a result of the Pike spawning around 4-weeks before other fish, the juvenile Pike have a head start and are able to quickly feed on smaller fry of other fish species later in the year. This allows hungry spawned out Pike to feed on both fish and other species such as frogs, which are pre-occupied with spawning themselves. This in turns allows the Pike to regain peak condition and fitness through easy meals being freely available.

The whole spawning process may last several weeks. A really well conditioned female Pike are able to produce up to 30,000 eggs/kg of bodyweight, with a struggling fish producing only 15,000/kg. So whilst a young sexually mature 3lb Pike in very good condition is able to lay 45,000 eggs, a 20lb fish up to 270,000 eggs, a 30lb fish some 400,000 eggs and it is possible that a large well conditioned 40lb female could produce nearly 680,000+ eggs. Considering that the much smaller males are believed to often be attacked after spawning, it would take some brave suitors to approach such an impressive female if aware of their potential fate !

Depending upon water temperature, the eggs can take between 5-26 days to hatch, after which the 10mm long larval young adhering to aquatic plants and surviving on their yolk sac for up to 12-days. During this short time their body lengthens and their mouth and gills develop, they begin to feed on plankton before the fins fully form.

Although the chance of survival from a hatching egg to an adult Pike is extremely low at just 0.1%, their initial success rate is quite high with a hatch rate of approximately 50%. However, considerable predation from other fish seeking peak conditioning themselves prior to spawning, waterfowl and water beetles such as Diving Beetles, Water Scorpions and damsel and dragon fly larvae reducing their chances drastically, and that’s before the Pike start to devour each other.

At just 5cm, Pike will begin preying on other fish larvae/ fry and  tadpoles, with cannibalism being very common, they quickly learn to hide in weed beds from both their own siblings and other predatory fish.

If they survive, and its clearly a big ‘if’, the juvenile Pike grow quickly and can reach 2lb in 3-years with males sexually maturing at just 2-years old and females at 4-years old.

Pike of 2-years old will feed almost exclusively on fish, although clearly this is dependant upon the availability of prey fish and competition within their habitat. Pike can feed on prey over half it’s length and will often turn cannibal. Despite popular belief, Pike do not need to feed often, as they only need to consume around 1.2 – 1.5 times their body weight a year to survive, however Pike consuming 2.5 to 3 times their body weight a year will clearly have improved growth rates and are likely to by healthier specimen.

The striped pattern of the younger Pike only remains for the first few years as this later breaks up to leave the mottled pattern of the adult fish, although occasionally the stripes remain and can result in very impressive looking, but quite rare specimens.

Male fish rarely grow in excess of 10lb in weight, it is the females that grow into the specimen fish of 20lb +, and it is these fish that are so highly sought after by specimen Pike anglers. But it s often the small Jack Pike that non-Pike anglers first encounter by accident whilst fishing for Roach, Bream Rudd and Dace.

Once adult, the only enemies that they have are larger Pike and the parasitic Lamprey, that can attach themselves whilst they lay waiting in ambush, and reduce the strength of the fish whilst remaining attached to its host.