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Water Wolf
When the northern pike is on the hunt, unsuspecting prey with fur, fins or feathers have little chance
"[Northern pike] may be one of the few fishes named for a weapon: the long-shafted spear."
Pike Fishing Beta
In general:
It's revered and reviled. One angler might laud the northern pike for its sporting qualities, the way it can hit a streamer or a spoon and take off for cover. Another might malign it as a murderous marauder worthy only of being hurled upon the bank. It's a ruinous carnivore with a penchant for piscivory, preying on other game fishes, some believe.
In the Southwest where it has been introduced, it's not exempt from enmity. That penchant for fish flesh aimed at smaller unsuspecting neighbors has created some conservation problems, eating fish with no inborn innate mechanisms to recognize a toothy predator when they see one. It has earned some of its vernacular names: water wolf, snake, torpedo. Myths, tall tales, and outright lies about northern pike abound. No matter how you perceive the fish, there's no shortage of stories to support your point of view, no matter if you fish the introduced populations in the Rio Grande, or lakes in Colorado and New Mexico, or stalk them in their native range in the northern U.S. and Canada.
Native peoples of the Yukon, for example, spun folk yarns of huge, fiendish pike capable of engulfing man and kayak. So strong were their convictions they avoided the lakes where these monsters were believed to live.
If you're a horseman near pike waters, worry not. Lore surrounding toothy northern pike pulling horses into the water by the muzzle as they drink is far-fetched.
Another fanciful story dates back 779 years to what's popularly known as the emperor's pike. In what is believed to be the second-oldest book on fly-fishing in the English language, The /Arte of Angling/ written in 1577, William Samuel mused about a mammoth fish, said to be 19 feet long and weigh in at a mere 550 pounds. This legendary leviathan was tagged when taken from a lake near Haslepurn, Sweden. A pen-and-ink drawing in the book illustrates an engraved copper ring the fish carried on its gill plate that told of its stocking 267 years earlier: "I am the first fish of all, put into this lake by the handes of Frederick the Second, ruler of the world. The fifth day of October, in the yere of our Lord 1230."
William Samuel offered his opinion: "There upon is gathered the sum of 267 years. And verily before it was of Frederick the Emporour so marked, a good while it have lived, and if as yet it had not been taken, it would have lived a longer time."
Well, probably not. Female northern pike live longer than males, to about 25 years at the most, and either sex can grow big. The largest fish on record came from the St. Johns River, Québec, in 1890, weighing in at nearly 49 pounds.
In understanding where to find pike, you really only need to remember one word to know how they make a living: weeds. Weeds in sufficient quantity, be it in shallow coves, canals, or backwaters, furnish habitat for northern pike. Usually they loiter close to the surface, but come summertime, they move to deeper water to find a thermal refuge - cool temperatures with the right amount of oxygen to ride out the heat. But they never go very deep - typically no more than 20 feet.
Because pike fishing slows in warm water, northern pike are well-kept secrets, says Esox Adventures guide, Michael Bishop of Santa Fe. "Some of the best places to fish for pike are Springer and Navajo lakes, and Cochiti Reservoir," says Bishop. "The Rio Grande from Alamosa to Española is good in the spring and the fall."
Northern pike have a body shape called fusiform - torpedo-like - and that's what they are like on the run in the Rio. They may be one of the few fishes named for a weapon: the long-shafted spear.
With a body built for short bursts of speed, and a preference for slow-swimming fishes, northern pike can unleash chaos on its smaller neighbors. Unsuspecting prey have little chance of getting away from this toothy predator. Pike hide among the shadows cast by weeds that emerge from the shallows. They will lurk for food - that's how they make a living and any moving object with fur, fins, or feathers isn't safe around pike waters. But fish is the favored fare. And that's usually the rub with pike haters. Some believe that northern pike, unfettered, will destroy a walleye or lake trout fishery. There's simply no doubt they like to eat fish, and northern pike also eat chubs and suckers.
They help keep the aquatic ecosystem stable where they naturally occur. Introduced populations upset the natural balance and take advantage of native fishes that have no evolutionary experience with such a predator. Probably no other fish has the potential for growth like the northern pike. They require about 1.4 grams of minnow to maintain one gram of body weight. Their stomach contents digest in 20 hours.
Angling's great apostle Izaak Walton investigated pike biology. In The Compleat Angler he wrote, " . . . pickerel weed and glutinous matter, with the help of the sun's heat in some months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, do become pikes."
Weeds are an integral part of the reproductive process, as Walton observed. Even before ice-out up north, northern pike already are stoked to spawn. Once the ice breaks, they head up tributary streams and onto flooded bottoms, traveling 40 miles or more if necessary. They create quite a ruckus for those lucky enough to witness the reproductive ritual. Most spawning occurs in the dark of the night. In weedy shallows - often less than 10 inches deep - a larger female is attended by two or more smaller males. Fertilized eggs are broadcast onto the vegetation and left without any parental care. These weeds provide the only form of protection as the eggs incubate. A big female could lay up to a half-million eggs, but no more than 1 percent of them will leave their natal site as fingerlings. There is increasing scientific evidence that northern pike will home to their natal streams to reproduce, probably attracted by the chemical smell of the water imprinted in their grey matter.
Shortly after hatching, small fish set about hunting crustaceans and insects. At 4 inches long they switch to frogs and fish. Growth in northern pike, in ideal settings, is rapid. In their eighth month they've usually reached 18 inches. They mature at about age three and reach 4 feet long near the end of a long life.
Today's monster pike are more modest in size but still good fodder for good fish stories. A 10-pounder slashing a streamer and taking off for cover is sure to imprint in your grey matter. This hard-hitting brute makes good sport and fine table fare. Izaak Walton told us how to "roast him when he is caught." He declared, "when thus prepared he is choicely good - too good for any but anglers and honest men."
Craig Springer writes from Santa Fe County, N.M.
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