The Pike Is The Wolf Of Our Reservoirs. Features And Habits

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Fishing Academy

Surely there is not a single fish that has been mentioned as much in proverbs and sayings as pike. Suffice it to recall: "They drowned the pike, but the teeth remained", "That's what the pike is for, so that the crucian does not sleep", "The pike is happy - took a ruff from the tail" and many others. And this is no accident. After all, pike is rightfully considered the most formidable and numerous predator of our fresh waters. The appearance of this fish is a clear confirmation of this …

The torpedo-like body, covered with small scales, is highly elongated. The head is large with an elongated and flattened snout. The huge mouth (it occupies half of the head) is equipped with many large and small teeth facing inward so that the victim cannot slip out. The dorsal, tail and tail fins are very similar to arrows for a bow, allowing the pike to make rapid, targeted throws in the water.

It would seem that by nature itself it is adapted to constant rapid movement, meanwhile, this fish leads a rather sedentary lifestyle. And it happens that, having fallen off the hook, even with serious injuries, he remains in the same place. Fishermen have repeatedly caught pike with tee hooks, cut off from the gutters and circles an hour or two earlier and stuck deep in the mouth and even in the throat.

This fish is found in a variety of reservoirs, sometimes in completely isolated or even densely covered with duckweed. The color of the pike is exclusively camouflage and largely depends on the environment, climatic conditions, and age. Young fish are dominated by gray-green tones, adults are colored darker. But in general, those that live among aquatic plants (they are called grass plants) are much lighter than old bottom pikes, which keep in deep pits and pools.

The back of an adult pike is usually dark brown; the sides are speckled with large spots of olive or blue-green color, which, merging, form pronounced transverse stripes. The paired fins are gray-orange; the dorsal, anal and caudal fins are brown-reddish with large gray-green spots. Although the color options may vary: it all depends on the place where the pike constantly lives.

If the pike stands at a depth, then the color of its back merges with the color of the bottom, and the swimming fish do not pay any attention to it. When the predator ambushes its prey into the upper layers of the water, the white belly makes it indistinguishable against the background of the cloudy sky.

The most incredible rumors circulated about the size of pikes … Here is what our famous fisherman LP Sabaneev writes about this: “… In many places, it (pike) reaches 2, even 3 or more pounds of weight and three-yard length. Four-pound pikes are found in Lake Onega”. But this, as they say, is still flowers, berries are ahead. I continue to quote L. P. Sabaneev: “… The largest pike ever caught is the historical pike of Emperor Frederick II Barbarosa, set by him, as it appears on the ring, in 1230 in one lake near Heilbronn and pulled out by a net in 1497, then there after 267 years. From old age the fish completely turned white. Its size was more than 8 arshins, and it weighed 8 poods 30 pounds. (Pud - 16 kilograms, pound - 409.5 grams, arshin - 0.71 meters. Note - A. N.). There is no doubt that pikes can live for more than one hundred years."

And although scientists have long refuted such myths, stories about huge pikes are still walking in our time. True, in the reservoirs of the North-West, it is much smaller. For example, in one book a pike weighing 40 kilograms is mentioned, in another, with reference to collective farm fishermen - 20 kilograms. But such a large, we will consider it something like an exotic. An ordinary fisherman mainly gets individuals 50-80 centimeters long and weighing 1.5-4 kilograms.

The pike grows quite quickly, but reports that it needs to eat 22-25 kilograms of fish in order to gain one kilogram in weight have not been confirmed.

The organs of the lateral line and vision are the most developed in her, with the help of which she finds food. With the lateral line, the pike perceives the oscillatory movements of the victim, and in the process of throwing, vision is also connected. Therefore, there is reason to believe that most often it gets fish that are in motion. The predator is especially interested in those whose movement differs from usual (wounded, sick, exhausted).

Swimming in the mask, I have repeatedly observed how small fishes pushed in a flock at the pike's head, completely without fear of being in its toothy mouth. But as soon as a roach with a protruding growth on its side appeared nearby, the pike immediately attacked it. Therefore, it is not for nothing that this fish is called an orderly, and also a water wolf.

However, if the wolf's legs are fed, then the pike does not really like to prowl. She hides and waits for the most part. Nobody sees or hears her, but she sees and hears everything. And, as soon as the prey is within reach, it makes a lightning-fast, often unmistakable attack.

The diet of pike is very varied, but the main food is small fish. However, she grabs any other living creature that turns up: water rats, shrews, muskrats, squirrels swimming across the reservoir, tadpoles, frogs (an accidentally captured toad immediately spits out). If food is scarce, it catches its relatives. He does not refuse waterfowl either.

I have repeatedly heard how in the summer fishermen justified their failures in catching pikes by the fact that, they say, the predator has a change of teeth at this time, and therefore she does not hunt. Studies have shown that this is not the case … The change of pike teeth does occur, but it occurs gradually and has little effect on the activity of the fish. And the bad luck of the fishermen is primarily connected with either the wrong selection of the necessary tackle, or with the inability to find typical "pike" places, or with the difficulties of using the necessary baits.

It is worth dwelling on another fairly common misconception that exists among amateur anglers. Say, big pikes smell like mud, and their meat is tough, and therefore tasteless. Anyone who adheres to this point of view is like a fox from the fable of "grandfather" Krylov, who, failing to get to the grapes, justified himself by the fact that he was green and therefore inedible.

Swamp, mud, rotting grass, the smell of pikes living in stagnant, overgrown reservoirs, regardless of age and weight. As for the rest of the pikes, they have no nutritional deficiencies. If you manage to catch it - handle it correctly and get tasty and nutritious dishes. But in order to enjoy these dishes, you just need a little: catch a pike. So, to be continued …