home » Good to know » See what "Pike" is in other dictionaries. Juutku-naen: Legends of the huge man-eating pike (5 photos) Structural features of the pike

See what "Pike" is in other dictionaries. Juutku-naen: Legends of the huge man-eating pike (5 photos) Structural features of the pike

Several species can be caught in Quebec pike, which belong to the Pike family and the Pike genus. The exception is the long-snouted shell, which is often also called the pike, but which belongs to a different family and genus.

All pike have similar features. The body is elongated, swept, covered with small scales. The dorsal fin is closer to the tail, with the anal fin just below it. The pectoral fins are located near the head, and the pelvic fins are located approximately in the middle of the body.

Pikes have large mouths with elongated jaws and strong, needle-like teeth. Pike are predators and therefore are of particular interest in sport fishing. They can be caught not only in summer, but also in winter.

This is the most familiar pike for most fishermen. Her Latin name is Esox lucius , in English.- north pike or simply pike, in French - grand brochet or simply brochet. Also in Quebec it is often called brochet du nord(Northern pike), as a translation option into French from English.

In Quebec, large pikes weigh in the region of 6-9 lb (2.7-4 kg) and reach a meter in length, but the average size is 50-75 cm and weighs 1-2 kg. Of course, you can catch a pike of a larger size and weight, but these are already trophy specimens. The color of the common pike is variable, but in general: the back is dark, the sides are grayish-green with golden spots and stripes, the belly is light.

Pike avoid fast currents, usually staying near thickets of underwater vegetation along the coast. It can be found both in lakes, large and small rivers. But larger pikes prefer deeper places where they can feed on larger fish.

Spawning takes place shortly after the ice melts at a water temperature of 3-6 ° C. In Quebec, to ensure a calm spawning of pike, it is forbidden to catch them in April and early May. During spawning itself, pikes keep in small groups: there are several males per female, and the larger the female, the greater the number of males.

Sexual maturity in females occurs at the age of 3 to 6 years with a length of 35-40 cm. Males mature earlier, at the age of 2 to 5 years. Females, depending on their size, can produce from 3 to 600 thousand eggs. Pike larvae immediately show their predatory properties: they eat small planktonic crustaceans, and with a length of only 1.5 cm they are already able to eat larvae of other fish.

With a length of 5 cm, pike fry completely switch to feeding on fry of other fish. Adult pikes feed not only on fish, but also on everything that "moves": frogs, mice, small waterfowl. Pike can also eat other pikes, i.e. they are cannibals.

There are cases when pikes grab large prey, comparable to half their own weight, but cannot swallow it. Teeth pointing backwards prevent spitting out the prey and the pike dies with it. This characterizes pikes as aggressive and greedy predators.

When catching pike around Montreal, I almost always come across just ordinary pikes. This happens both in summer and winter.

You can catch pike with a variety of artificial lures: spinners, wobblers, silicone twisters and vibrotails, artificial mice and frogs, spinnerbaits and even big flies. From April 1, 2017 introduced a widespread ban in Quebec on the use of dead fish in summer, and live fish in winter, which to some extent will change the traditional winter fishing for pike.

In general, pike is a dietary product. Pike meat contains 2-3% fat. It is ideal for a variety of fish dishes, does not contain specific odors. Local regulations recommend eating pike as follows: two servings per month. "One serving" is equal to 230 grams (8 ounces of raw fish before cooking), i.e. per month it is recommended to consume only 460 grams of pike meat.

2. Black, striped or chain pike

This is a species of North American fish of the pike family. Her Latin name is Esox nigga , in English.- chain pickerel (chain pike) or southern pike(southern pike), in French - brochet maille or picquerelle. In Quebec, she is often called picquerelle(eye-eyed), as a variant of the transition from the English name, as well as brochet d "herbes, brochet de riviere.

On average, in Quebec, black pike weigh in the region of 1-3 lb (0.4-1.3 kg) and reach 30-50 cm in length, i.e. in general, these are small pike. This pike has a characteristic striped pattern on the flanks, reminiscent of a net or chain links, which is why its name "chain" came from. But the main body color is black, which is reflected in its Latin name. The belly of the pike is light.

Black pike loves lakes, swamps and overgrown bays of small and large rivers, but not very deep, usually up to 3 meters deep.

Spawning in black pike also takes place after the ice melts, in April-May. Sexual maturity is reached in different ways at the age of 1 to 4 years. The female at this time is accompanied by two smaller males. The pale yellow eggs are about 2mm in diameter, which is smaller than the 3mm eggs of the common pike. The eggs are scattered randomly, i.e. pikes do not make any nests, and are attached to aquatic vegetation. On average, the female lays from 6 to 8 thousand eggs.

The black pike is the same predator as the common pike. So the methods of catching it do not differ from the traditional catching of ordinary pike. This pike is quite brisk and active on the hook, so it gives great pleasure and adrenaline when playing the fish.

In several years of fishing around Montreal, I only once caught a black pike during winter fishing in the marina of Longueuil, it weighed half a kilo.

It tasted the same as an ordinary pike, I did not feel the difference. In general, the taste of meat is rich and pleasant. It is also advised to use skinless meat before cooking in order to fully experience the taste of pike meat.

And although the black pike in Quebec is quite a rare fish that is on the list species of wild animals that can be designated as endangeredor vulnerable, I did not find a full-fledged ban on catching this pike.

This subspecies of the American pike is found only in eastern North America. Her Latin name is Esox americanus americanus , in English.- redfin pickerel(red-finned pike), in French - brochet d "Amerique (American pike).

This is a small pike, which on average reaches a length of 15-20 cm, rarely up to 30 cm. It weighs about 200-300 grams. The largest pike caught weighed 0.87 kg and reached 40 cm.

This pike is distinguished by the characteristic coloration of its fins, which vary in color from orange to red. On the sides of the pike there are dark wide stripes, the body itself is light. The eyes of the red-finned pike are dark, often with a dark red tint.

This pike likes to stay in shallow, overgrown areas of water bodies, where it hunts for small fish. Sexual maturity occurs at a length of 13-15 cm, at the age of 2-3 years. The red-finned pike lives no more than 10 years.

Despite its size, the redfin pike is a predator and feeds on small fish as well as large insects. It is not a full-fledged object for sport fishing, but it is well suited for ultralight fishing, i.e. for small lures: small spinners and small silicone lures.

In Canada, red-finned pike is found only in Quebec: in the St. Lawrence River, near Lake Saint-Pierre, in the Richelieu River, in Lake Champlain, in the Yamaska, Saint-Francois, Godefroy, Saint-Paul lakes.

In general, it tastes like an ordinary pike, but I myself can’t confirm it, I haven’t come across it yet.

It is the second subspecies of the American pike and is found only in eastern North America. Her Latin name is Esox americanus vermiculatus , in English.- grass pickerel(grass pike), in French - b rochet vermicule .

This is also a small pike, very similar to the juveniles of common pike. Usually it weighs no more than 200-300 grams. At three years, it reaches a length of 16 cm, at five - 20 cm, at seven - 25 cm. It differs from the red-finned pike in a more elongated snout, it does not have an orange-red color of the fins. The light gaps between the dark transverse stripes of the grass pike are noticeably wider than those of the red-finned pike. The body color of the herb is lighter and greenish. The body is not only elongated, but also more cylindrical.

This pike loves small rivers with good water and a lot of quiet coves. The survival of this species of pike is directly linked to the conservation of wetlands. In general, due to the small distribution in Quebec and the state of the waters, the grass pike is under threat. disappearance.

In 2012 The Grass Pike Development Plan in Canada was adopted to conserve and increase this species of pike. Grass pike is currently under close surveillance in Quebec, so when caught it is recommended to release the fish into the water and report the catch to Quebec Natural Heritage Data Center (Centre de données sur le patrimoine naturel du Québec).

5. Long-snouted carapace or armored pike

The long-snouted carapace belongs to the family "Carapace" and the genus "Carapace pikes". His Latin name is Lepisosteus osseus, in English. - long nose gar, in French - lepisosté osseux. In Quebec, the armored pike is often called poisson arm é (armed fish) due to bone plates under strong scales.

This is an ancient prehistoric fish that has survived to this day from the time of the dinosaurs. This toothed predator is a real "living fossil". It differs from other armored pikes in its long, beak-shaped jaws, studded with a row of sharp teeth.

The back and sides of the long-snouted carapace are brown-olive, the belly is olive-green, yellowish or white. The tail, anal and dorsal fins have medium-sized dark spots.

In Quebec, its average length usually reaches 50-64 cm, weight 0.4-0.9 kg, but larger specimens can also be caught. The long-nosed shell loves rivers with high water temperatures, lakes with overgrown shores. He lives and hunts in the upper and middle layers of water, loves areas of the reservoir with a weak current or without it. The average lifespan is about 20 years, but males rarely live longer than 12 years.

Spawning in the long-snouted carapace occurs in mid-June in shallow areas among aquatic vegetation. The hatched larvae also stay near the algae. The eggs themselves are poisonous to other predators, which helps to develop this species duringnearly 60 million years.

In summer, the shell loves to be near the surface of the water, from where it attacks small fish, frogs, and small mammals. Therefore, it can be caught on a float rig with a small (5 cm) artificial bait on the hook. This pike is also a voracious predator. It feeds almost all the time, but the peak of activity falls on the dark time of the day.

Due to its long snout, studded with sharp teeth, this pike can be caught not only with small artificial lures, but also with large flies without hooks. During a special hunt for this fish, a black-and-white fly is made from nylon, synthetic fibers (phentex) about 10 cm long. The material gets tangled in the carapace's teeth and a hook is therefore not required. If you catch on ordinary baits, then the shell can easily get off, since it is difficult for the bait to catch on to its long snout.

The meat of the long-snouted shell is of no culinary value. In addition, its caviar should not be eaten, it is toxic and poisonous to humans. Therefore, when a shellfish is caught, it is usually released back into the water.

In general, the long-snouted shellfish is not well known to local fishermen and has no particular purpose in sport fishing. Autumn 2010 a small study was carried out on the lake of the Two Mountains (Le lac des Deux Montagnes). More than 200 individuals were caught, the weight of which ranged from 1 to 6.7 kg. It turns out that after 1950. due to industrial runoff into the Ottawa River, there were problems with the development of fish in the lake. The carapace, less whimsical to the level of oxygen in the water, received some advantage and was able to greatly increase its population in this place.

6. Muskinong pike

This is a large, relatively rare freshwater fish, which in Quebec is the second largest in size after sturgeon. Her Latin name is Esox masquinongy , in English. - Muskellunge, and Muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, maskinonge(abbreviated " Muskie" or " musky"), in French - maskinonge. In Quebec, the Muskinong pike is often referred to as musky(mask) And requin d'eau douce(freshwater shark).

The name of the fish in English comes from the Indian word maashkinoozhe , which means "ugly pike", which at one time came from a modification of the French name for this type of pike masque allonge("elongated mask").

The average size of a masquenong reaches 70-120 cm and weighs 2.5-16 kg. Masking is characterized by dark spots on a light background. The color of the back can vary from bright green to light brown, and the color of the sides from green, brown, gray to bright silver. The shape of dark spots can be either in the form of dots or stripes or combinations thereof.

It is customary to distinguish three varieties of masking by color: striped or ordinary (eng.- barred Muskellunge, fr.- maskinonge raye or barre ), in which dark stripes are clearly visible; spotted (eng.- spotted muskellunge, fr.- maskinonge mouchete or tachete ), in which dark dots on a silvery body are clearly visible; clean or naked (English- clear muskellunge, fr.- maskinonge sans marque or claire or simply maskinonge ), which practically does not show stripes. Usually in one reservoir fish of one coloring prevail, but at the same time all three species can coexist together.

It can be distinguished from an ordinary pike by a masking by the inversion of its color: the pike has light spots on a dark body, the masking has dark spots on a light body. The edges of the tail of the masking are pointed, while those of the common pike are more rounded. The surest way to tell the difference between a maskinong and a pike is to count the number of sensory points on the bottom jaw of the fish. The common pike never has more than six of them, while the muskling has from 6 to 9 on each side.

The Muskinong pike spawns in late April and early May, mostly after the spawning of the common pike. This explains the strong pressure of the common pike population on the maskinong population. Pike fry mature earlier and include musklong larvae in their diet. The average lifespan of a Musk King is 5 to 15 years, but it can live up to 30 years.

Sexual maturity in pike-maskinongs comes aged 3 to 5 years. During the spawning season, a large female is accompanied by one or two smaller males. Muskinongs do not build nests, but scatter eggs randomly on aquatic vegetation. The eggs have light yellow color, from 2.5 to 3.5 mm in diameter. IN depending on the size females to the number of eggs ranges from 6 to 450 thousand.

Muskinongs prefer m spruce water, light and warm, with dense vegetation. During the summer heat, they like cool and deep water. Lakes, bays, moderately flowing rivers. In autumn, when the aquatic vegetation has fallen off, the chance of catching a musk is higher, as the lures are more visible in the water.

The maskinong pike is considered a very voracious predator. Already with a length of 5 cm, small squints actively hunt everything that can fit into their mouths. They put on weight very quickly in the first years of their lives. Muskinong mainly eats fish, but its diet also includes crayfish, frogs, snakes, mice, muskrats, chicks and adult birds.

Due to the fact that masking is voracious, in some places the so-called "pike lakes" are formed, in which, apart from pikes, there is practically no other fish left. The food chain is formed as follows: fry eat small larvae and crustaceans, squint eat fry, large individuals eat squint, and so on in increasing order. Once I visited Lac-Frontière Lake, which is a two-hour drive from Quebec City. There, the owner of a small hotel complained that, apart from the mask, there was no one left in the lake, he said that the rest of the fish were simply eaten by the maskinong pike. So now in mid-June, a small tournament is held on the lake in the first days of the opening of the season for masquenong.

It has been observed that the maskinong pike can swallow prey, which is a third of its own length. Therefore, they catch it on very large baits, the average length of which reaches 20-30 cm. single hook or tee.

Due to the fact that the masking pike loves to accompany the bait, not grabbing it, the name "fish of 10,000 casts" (English - Fish of 10,000 casts) has stuck to the masking pike, i.e. Catching a "giant pike" is not so easy.

Although anglers I know occasionally catch muskellunge, especially after driving farther north from Montreal, I only once caught a 2kg spotted muskfish while ice fishing on the Rivière de Mille Île under the bridge on Highway 15 Nord. Not far from me, on the Rivière des Prairie between the Pi-IX and Olivier-Charboneau bridges, a friend caught a 126 cm masquenonga weighing 18.8 kg.

The culinary value of musknessong meat is very high. The meat is white and flaky. In general, the masquenong has fewer bones than the common pike. In the 8th zone (Montreal and its environs) there is a size limit: it can be taken home if it is greater than or equal to 111 cm.

7. Tiger pike or tiger masking

In fact, it is a hybrid of the common pike and maskinong. In English.- tigermuskellunge or tiger muskie, in French - brochet tigre. The hybrid is called the tiger pike because of the characteristic stripes on the sides.

The hybrid is completely sterile and does not have the ability to reproduce, so it does not create independent populations.

The body of the tiger pike is shorter and more squared than in the original forms. The hybrid grows 1.5 times faster than regular masking. This pike becomes stronger and also less susceptible to disease. It also features more violent resistance on the hook.

The crossbreeding of the masquenong and the common pike takes place in the natural wild where both parental species occur. But breeders are also working on this, carrying out artificial crossing in order to get faster-growing specimens of fish.

In those reservoirs where both types of pike live, as a rule, over time, the maskinong is replaced by an ordinary pike, since it is more adapted to the competitive struggle for survival.

Pike (lat. Esox)- a genus of freshwater fish, the only one in the pike family (Esocidae). The type species of the genus is Esox lucius (common pike). Distributed in Europe, Siberia, North America.

Pike can reach 1.8 m in length and 47 kg in weight, although larger specimens are also found. The life expectancy of individual individuals can reach up to 30 years. The body of the pike has an elongated shape and resembles a torpedo. Pointed head and sharp teeth typical of predatory fish. Pike color - gray-green speckled.

Pikes are extremely voracious predators. They feed mainly on fish (roach, perch, minnow). The pike is cannibalistic: about 20% of its diet is made up of smaller individuals of its own species. In addition, pikes feed on amphibians and reptiles, large insects and various garbage. Small mammals, such as mice or moles that have fallen into the water, can also become their prey. The pike also preys on small waterfowl and their chicks. This predator attacks animals reaching 1/3 of its own size.

The pike reaches enormous size and deep old age. Pound pike can be found everywhere. In our country, the largest pikes are found in northern rivers and lakes, probably due to their less availability compared to southern Russian ones. In the Kama and in the deep bochas of many Ural small rivers, a three-pood (50 kg) occasionally comes across; also in some muddy lakes of the Ural region; in the lake Uveldakh, for example, was caught about 25 years ago a pike in 3 1/2 (57 kg) pounds. Four-pood pikes (65 kg), according to prof. Kessler, are found in Lake Onega, while in Ladoga these predators are rarely more than a pood in weight. The largest pikes are apparently found in the Vychegda and other northern rivers. According to Arseniev, a monk of the Ulyanovsk monastery was caught here on the path, i.e. for running baubles, pike in 5 (82 kg) pounds. The same writer tells the following interesting case. In the Nyuvchimsky plant (30 versts from Ustsysolsk) in the pond of the Nyuvchima River, workers in July 1885 heard unusual fuss at the locks; a mass of workers saw the head of a huge pike, which seized across another, more than two arshins, therefore, about a pood in weight; the fuss lasted about ten minutes, finally the one caught stopped beating, and the winner sank to the bottom with her.

In Siberia, very large pikes seem to be less common than in northern Russia, and only in lakes. Argentov speaks about three-arshin pikes (2.13 m) (maybe this is a different species) in the lakes of the water system of the river. Kolyma, but there are no other indications of large pikes. It is quite possible that the reason for the rarity of large pikes in the Siberian and South Russian rivers is cohabitation with a stronger predator. A large taimen in Siberia, and in the south of Russia, a large catfish can easily cope with a pood pike.

In Western Europe, giant pikes were also encountered in the 19th century, and in the past and in the Middle Ages they were even not uncommon. Back in 1862, according to Genzik, transmitted to Borne, a pike of 145 (65.78 kg) pounds was caught in Bregenz. The largest pike ever caught is the historical pike of Emperor Frederick II Barbarossa, which he, as indicated on the ring, launched into a lake near Heilbronn in 1230 and pulled out with a seine net in 1497, i.e. after 267 years. From old age, the fish completely turned white. Its size was 19 feet, i.e., more than 8 arshins, and it weighed 8 pounds. 30 pounds. The portrait of this pike is still preserved in the Lautern castle, and the skeleton and ring are in Mannheim.

There is no doubt that pikes can live for more than one hundred years. Near Moscow, when cleaning the Tsaritsyno Ponds (at the end of the last century), a three-arshin (2 m) pike was caught with a golden ring in the gill cover and with the inscription: "planted by Tsar Boris Fedorovich." In all likelihood, she weighed about 4 pounds. Blanchere says that in 1610 a huge pike was caught in the Meuse with a copper ring bearing the year 1448.

Judging by these data, the pike grows very quickly, although, of course, in feeding places much faster than in places with few fish. Males, moreover, are always much less, or rather, lighter (more than a third) than females of the same age, and differ from them in a more elongated body and greater agility. However, the relative thickness depends not only on sex, but also on the abundance of food and on age. In very feeding lakes, large eggs look like short stumps and weigh one and a half times, even twice as much as females of the same length living in waters poor in fish. In more temperate climates, pike grows faster than in the north, where they are doomed to a longer winter fast. Here, in Russia, the growth of this fish is never as significant as in Western Europe. Finally, it should be noted that juveniles of large pike grow faster than juveniles of small ones, and that the growth does not occur year after year and depends on the yield of juveniles and the amount of small fish, in general, food. This remark applies to all other fish.

Thus, the exact determination of the age of the pike and its annual growth is very difficult and is possible only approximately for any individual water body. In Moskvoretsky backwaters I found in July last year's squints, weighing only about half a pound, while those in Lake Senezh already weighed more than a pound. In the lakes beyond the Urals, pike grow even faster. In general, a one-year-old pike has from 5 to 7 inches in length, a two-year-old - 7-9 inches and hardly reaches 3 pounds of weight. Approximately it can be assumed that in our fish waters a pike (female) is as old as pounds she weighs. There is no doubt that pike grows faster than all our purely river fish (that is, not counting the semi-marine beluga and sturgeon), with the exception of catfish. Having reached the size of an arshine, that is, 5-6 pounds, in our 4-5 year of life it increases in length slowly and grows more in thickness. According to my observations, an adult pike grows annually about half an inch. Pound specimens are always about 2 arshins in length and must be at least 20 years old, and more often 30 or more.

This is interesting!

Pike weighing 20, 25, 30 and even 45 kilograms! Would you like to pinch yourself? You do not dream of such a pike? Unable to catch American perch and maskong, European anglers are obsessed with pike - or rather, big pike!

From the lakes of Scotland and Ireland, the waters of Britain, from the shallow waters and canals of Holland, the vast lakes, reservoirs and gigantic brackish Baltic Sea of the Scandinavian countries, from the rivers and mountain lakes of Switzerland, Austria and Germany, from the swamps of Spain, from the rivers Danube, Drau and Rhine and Central Europe, Shannon, Avon and Stour in the UK, from the countless reservoirs of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and even Russia, legends of monstrous pikes come.
Well, not really "legends" of course. The monstrous European pikes are a fact! There is a lot of quite reliable information about pikes weighing up to 50 kg, caught on a hook. Over the past few years, pikes have been caught that weigh more than the existing world record of 57 pounds (25.7 kg) - real pikes under 30 kg!

The European "Largest Pike List" first compiled by the Englishman Fred Buller does not even include pikes weighing less than 13 kg, and the modern list excludes pikes weighing less than 20 kg!
Europe is full of different streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Admittedly, many European waters are under a lot of fishing pressure, but some waters are big enough to bear it. The brackish Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden is huge! Sweden also has two lakes, Vänern and Vättern (a pike weighing 30 kg has been recorded), about 100 miles long and 20-50 miles wide. Any European country, with the exception of the smallest, has reservoirs of 2, 6, 10 or more thousand hectares, both shallow and deep (130 m deep). Loch Lomond in Scotland (pike under 25 kg) is 27 miles long and 5-6 miles wide.

Although the Loch Ness Monster is not a pike, the lake itself is huge, but the pike is not found in it. Far from swampy streams and the rivers Danube, Rhine and Shannon. In the Shannon River, at Meelik, 10 miles wide, pikes weighing up to 25 kg were caught, and a 45 kg pike was found dead.
When catching large European pike, not only the size of the reservoir matters. For example, one pike per 25 kg was caught in sand pits. Anglers in the Scottish Moors catch pike in drainage ditches only 15m wide!

The vast expanses of Siberia are very convenient to view on the map. This is a solid green spot, which is crossed by thin strings of rivers. It rests on the Kamchatka mountains, the Arctic Ocean and the Kazakh steppes. Everything is compact and clear.

In fact, it is difficult even to imagine the huge taiga and tundra - tens of thousands of kilometers of wilderness, where no human foot has set foot. Many areas of Siberia are known only through aerial photography, and even geologists study them, mainly moving along the riverbeds. The local population prefers to settle along the rivers - the Khanty, Mansi and Yakuts in the center of Siberia, and to the east and north - the Chukchi, Dolgans, Nganasans, Yukaghirs.

No one knows what the taiga jungle hides. Rumor has it that mammoths and giant spirits, similar to primitive people, still live here. There are other mysterious beings, including giant man-eating pike.

Legends say that these fish can be found in large lakes. According to the Selkups, the pike, which has reached the age of one hundred years, specifically looks for a deep reservoir during the flood of the rivers and remains in it until death. Finding out the habitat of the monster is easy - such a lake has no source, it is avoided by birds and animals. The Selkups call these lakes purulto - "lakes of black water", and they will never fish or go boating here. They are afraid to approach them even in winter, believing that monstrous pikes can break through the ice and feast on a traveler.

Similar stories are told by the Yakuts. The Soviet ethnographer Aleksey Okladnikov recorded from one hunter a story about how a pike ate a young man.

“There lived an old man with a guy. One hot day, deer sailed away from the old man to an island in the lake. The guy sat on a birch bark boat and chased the deer so that they would not go far. The old man is currently at home. Suddenly, the water roared without wind. A large tail appeared, and a huge pike fish swallowed the guy, capsizing the boat in a big wave. This pike also slammed the deer with its mouth. The old man sobbed bitterly, mourning the death of his son. The next morning, he traveled the entire lake on a deer, trying to find at least the bones of the dead guy.

The old man had an ax in his hand. And suddenly, when he was riding near the shore, again the water, like a hillock, was agitated. From the lake a huge pike rushed towards him. The beach was low and sloping. The pike rushed with such tremendous force that it remained on the dry shore without reaching the old man. The old man jumped up and killed her with an axe. I cut open her belly and found the bones - from the guy were left; from the boat, only chips remained. The old man took the jaw of that fish and placed it like a gate on the road that leads from this mountain lake to Lake Sialakh. Through this gate, everyone, without getting off the deer, passed, the jaw was so high and wide.

The Yakuts and Selkups are separated by many kilometers of impenetrable swamps and thickets. It is unlikely that they could borrow stories about cannibals from each other. It is even more difficult to believe that the Chukchi learned such stories from them. However, they also talk about huge pikes.

In the excellent monograph by Vladimir Bogoraz "Chukchi" there is a separate chapter devoted to monsters. Pikes are also mentioned there, which the inhabitants of Kolyma call juutku-naen - "biting fish". According to legends, giant fish live in distant tundra lakes and prey on people, especially bathers. Do not disdain and fishermen.

The Chukchi have a story about how a pike ate a young man who was fishing on the lake. The cannibal was caught in a very original way. The Chukchi lowered four sleds loaded with reindeer meat to the bottom of the lake. When the pike tried to eat the bait, its teeth got stuck in the wreckage of the sled. It took several people to pull the fish ashore.

The Yukagirs, who live next to the Chukchi, also know giant pikes. They told a story about a fisherman who went to inspect his nets and in the water - on both sides of the shuttle - he saw two large yellow eyes, the distance between which was equal to two oars. According to the fisherman, it was a huge pike lying motionless in the water.

Okladnikov heard similar stories from the Yakuts: “We used to see a pike on the lake: its eyes were visible on both sides of the birch bark boat.”

Let's move six thousand kilometers from Kolyma to the west, to Yamal, where there are legends about wheatgrass - a man-eating fish with horns on its head. Valery Chernetsov, who wrote down local legends, believed that huge pikes were the prototype of the monster. A Nenets hunter told him that once three men killed a huge fish in the lake in the Yenisei delta, in the stomach of which they found a belt buckle. Sharks are rare in these areas. There are no cannibal sharks at all, especially in fresh lakes. Chernetsov believed that it was a huge pike.

Now let's go down to the south, to the basin of the great Ob, to the Khanty, who believe that the water spirit Sart-lung turns into giant pikes. Werefish live in deep pools and lakes and can easily bite a boat.

By the way, the Khanty consider the pike not a fish, but a beast, which the supreme god Torum created headless, apparently fearing his cruelty. But the pike was not taken aback and made its own head. She swam along the Ob, swallowing everything that she met on the way - an elk, a bear, a woman with a bundle of firewood, a fisherman, a crow. From the eaten turned out the head.

Having prepared the pike, the Khanty take apart its skull piece by piece, telling the children who was eaten by the first pike. The bones of the pike head really resemble figures of people, animals and birds in shape. Thus, the Khanty not only entertain children, but also instill in them how dangerous the water ogre is.

Know about the existence of monstrous pikes and the neighbors of the Khanty. Mansi told folklorists about the yur-sort - a giant lake pike with a thin body and a large head, and about the anten-sort - a four-foot horned pike, which, on occasion, can eat a person.

It is unbelievable that such different peoples as the Chukchi and Mansi would have the same legends about the same animal, if there were no good reasons for this. But still, let's assume that in some incredible way, stories about cannibal pikes were invented, for example, by the Selkups, and all the other nationalities liked them so much that they began to retell them in their own way. In this case, it is not clear what to do with similar stories that Canadians, Finns and even Kalmyks have.

The legends of the Canadian Eskimos tell how a giant fish ate two fishermen at once. It happened when three men were swimming across a large lake near Saninajok. Two were sitting in kayaks connected to each other, the third was swimming separately and suddenly heard a loud cry for help. This huge fish attacked the fastened kayaks and swallowed them. The Eskimo realized that it would not be possible to save his comrades, and quickly swam to the shore. The monster followed him. It rushed so fast that it drove the waves in front of it, and they pushed the kayak forward. As soon as the boat touched the shore, the man jumped out and ran away.

The Finnish epic "Kalevala" speaks of a pike from the Tuonela River, from the jaws of which large kantele harps were made.

The most interesting belief is that of the Kalmyks, who believe that in remote steppe lakes there are very old, moss-covered pikes that swallow people and boats. Moreover, on the full moon, they get ashore and crawl through the fields in search of food, attacking calves and cows.

Legends about giant pikes are very widespread. It is noteworthy that they speak not just about cannibal fish, but specifically about pikes. It is hardly accidental. In addition to pikes, there are many other monsters in mythology, including cruel water spirits. Why not write off troubles and disasters to their account? Why attribute them to fish, and not to taimen or, for example, catfish, but to pikes?

So the stories have a real basis? Why are giant pikes not found anywhere except in folklore? That's the thing, they meet. The same ethnographers have repeatedly seen the remains of monstrous pikes.

One of the old, even pre-revolutionary researchers of the Siberian peoples, N. Grigorovsky, in his work “Essays on the Narym Territory,” wrote that giant pikes are actually found “in these remote places where a human foot has not yet been.” He said that in the forest "near the village of Ketsky" for a long time hung the lower jaw of a pike, nailed to a tree, the length of a horse's head. By the way, according to him, the locals called the jaws of pikes sleds, which also speaks of their considerable size.

Saw the huge remains and Soviet scientists. Ethnographers Vladislav Kulemzin and Nadezhda Lukina in one of their books mention a pike jaw nailed to the wall of a Khanty hut. The jaw had such teeth that the fishermen hung raincoats and padded jackets on them.

My great-grandfather, who lived on the Don, during a big flood saw a huge pike in a flood meadow near a haystack, which looked like an old mossy log. He killed her with a pitchfork and fed her to the pigs.

And the traveler Anatoly Pankov in the "Oymyakon Meridian" spoke about a bulldozer who shot a giant pike with a gun. This happened in Yakutia, in the lower reaches of the Indigirka. The fish was old, covered with algae, green-brown, flabby, like cotton wool. It reached four meters in length. In addition, Pankov cited another interesting story.

“A worker at the Silyannyakhsky state farm, whose center is located on a tributary of the Indigirka, a young erudite specialist, having learned about my addiction to water travel, offered himself as a companion.

– Shall we sail along the Siliannyakh? I asked half in jest.

– According to Silannyakh?! On a canvas kayak? There are such pikes that they will either cut the kayak or pull it out of the boat. How many cases were there when pikes were grabbed by the legs. They are so big - it's scary to think ... "

Biologists do not recognize the existence of giant pikes, especially cannibals. The most they are willing to do is admit that they reach two meters in length. However, what can prevent a pike from growing even more - after all, like most fish, it grows throughout its life!

The records of ethnographers about jaws that go beyond the recognized sizes of pikes, the legends of various peoples dedicated to pikes, indicate that they can indeed reach enormous sizes.

Why are they unknown to scientists? The answer is really simple. Almost all stories are about lake fish, not river fish. This is not surprising - in the rivers, pikes have serious competitors, they are caught by fishermen and they simply cannot reach a huge size in old age.

In the lakes, no one threatens pikes, especially in the lost taiga reservoirs. People are rare here, there are almost no large predators. True, there is little food. Perhaps this explains the fact that pikes attack humans. If a four-meter predator can drag an elk or a fisherman under water, why shouldn't she do it? Especially if she's hungry.

Most of the taiga and tundra lakes, where such giants can be found, have not been studied. Just out of necessity. Yes, and there are huge pikes, apparently rare. The reason is also simple - in order to grow to a gigantic size, a pike must live for more than a hundred years.

It is doubtful that several monsters lived in one reservoir at once - the ecosystem of even a large lake is unlikely to feed two giants. This means that after the death of a monster, at best, a hundred years will pass until another one appears. And most likely, much more time will pass - not every pike will be able to live to such an advanced age.

Therefore, it is unlikely that a rare beast will soon get to scientists. But if you suddenly find yourself in a remote place and start fishing in a dark lake without a source, be careful. Maybe you will see a huge, multi-meter pike and want to catch it for the glory of science. True, if I were you, I would get ashore as soon as possible. Perhaps the monster is swimming to eat you. And you still can't catch him. Such a pike is not caught either with a fishing rod or spinning.

Every fisherman dreams of catching a big, and even better - a giant fish. And some fish dream of catching a fisherman. Such predators live not only in the depths of the sea and tropical rivers, but also in our north. Legends say that these fish can be found in large lakes. According to the Selkups, the pike, which has reached the age of one hundred years, specifically looks for a deep reservoir during the flood of the rivers and remains in it until death. Finding out the habitat of the monster is easy - such a lake has no source, it is avoided by birds and animals. The Selkups call these lakes purulto - "lakes of black water", and they will never fish or go boating here. They are afraid to approach them even in winter, believing that monstrous pikes can break through the ice and feast on a traveler.

Similar stories are told by the Yakuts. The Soviet ethnographer Aleksey Okladnikov recorded from one hunter a story about how a pike ate a young man.

In the excellent monograph by Vladimir Bogoraz "Chukchi" there is a separate chapter devoted to monsters. Pikes are also mentioned there, which the inhabitants of Kolyma call dzhuutku-naen - “biting fish”. According to legends, giant fish live in distant tundra lakes and prey on people, especially bathers. Do not disdain and fishermen.

Okladnikov heard similar stories from the Yakuts: “We used to see a pike on the lake: its eyes were visible on both sides of the birch bark boat.”

The Finnish epic "Kalevala" speaks of a pike from the Tuonela River, from the jaws of which large kantele harps were made.

So the stories have a real basis? Why are giant pikes not found anywhere except in folklore? That's the thing, they meet. The same ethnographers have repeatedly seen the remains of monstrous pikes.

– Shall we sail along the Siliannyakh? I asked half in jest.

Biologists do not recognize the existence of giant pikes, especially cannibals. Science recognizes only that a pike can reach two meters in length, and the officially confirmed age of the oldest pike is thirty-three years. So, today science recognizes only one species of "giant pike" and this is the Maskinong Pike (Esox masquinongy) - a large, relatively rare freshwater fish of the pike family. The largest representative of the family. Found in North America. However, what can prevent a pike from growing even more - after all, like most fish, it grows throughout its life!

The records of ethnographers about jaws that go beyond the recognized sizes of pikes, the legends of various peoples dedicated to pikes, indicate that they can indeed reach enormous sizes.

Probably, there is no person in Russia who is unfamiliar with pike fish. Almost everyone knows her since childhood from the primer, in which the pike personified the letter "Sch", fairy tales, coloring books, fables, riddles, cartoons. Perhaps that is why it is recognized at first sight even by those who have never held a fishing rod.

On this page, the reader will be able to replenish his knowledge base with fishing information necessary for successful pike fishing.

Pikevulgaris - Age, size, distribution

Common pike is one of five species of predatory freshwater fish of the only genus Pike (Esox) of the Pike family (Esocidae). It lives in North America, Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula, in the territory of the former countries of the Soviet Union and almost all of Russia. The exception is the river basin. Amur and Fr. Sakhalin inhabited by another species - the Amur pike, as well as reservoirs with very stagnant water, mountain rivers, arid regions.

The remaining three species: Red-finned pike, Maskinnong pike, Black pike live only in North America and are not of particular interest to domestic fishermen.

Common pike (hereinafter in the text simply pike or abbreviated as "Sch") inhabits if not every, then every second body of water in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, which include large and small rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, quarries.

The pike is unpretentious in the choice of habitat, just like the crucian carp, it tolerates brackish water well, meeting in the desalinated waters of the sea bays of the Baltic and Azov Seas: in the Finnish, Riga, Curonian and Taganrog.

Until a certain age, lake shchips do not leave the coastal zone; they find refuge in the coastal grass, near snags, sunken boats, and other objects. Having reached a solid size at 3-4 kg of weight, these predators move to a depth in large pits.

River pikes, regardless of age and size, do not go far from the shore edge, they spend their whole lives in the coastal line, like their small-sized lake relatives.

Many fishermen consider small pike living near the coast to be a separate slow-growing subspecies, calling them "grass pike", and large individuals hiding at a depth are considered to be "deep pike". In fact, this is one species of predatory fish that does not have subspecies, conditionally divided according to age.

The maximum size of Shch individuals is 1.6 m, and their weight is 26 kg. According to a registered fact, in 1930, an individual 1.9 m long, weighing 35 kg was caught in Lake Ilmen.
In our time, fishermen most often catch small pike from 50 cm to 70 cm, weighing 1.2 - 3 kg, specimens from 3 kg to 7 kg are caught less often, and many trophy hunters have not managed to catch pike over 14 kg in their entire lives. . The largest "tails" live in wild northern rivers, where predators can live to a ripe old age.

There is an opinion that pikes live for a very long time - more than 100 years, in fact, their average life expectancy is 18-20 years, theoretically - under ideal conditions of existence, they can live up to 30 years, but their increased demands on the oxygen content in water affect at age, with a decrease in the concentration of O 2 to 3 mg/l, the fish die.

Usually, deaths occur in winter in small closed biotopes, in which a sharp decrease in oxygen is caused by the establishment of an ice cover. In small bioresources, freezing through "through", the death of the biocenosis occurs due to icing.

Peculiaritiespike structures

Bodyfish

The pike is the most voracious predator of our reservoirs, leading a secretive, sedentary lifestyle. It mainly hunts at close range from an ambush, guarding its prey while in hiding. But during the period of active zhora, she changes her hunting tactics, patrols her lands, and, having found a target, aggressively pursues it.

The cannibalism characteristic of her does not allow her to be in the company of her own kind, which is why the toothy one leads a lonely existence. Only for the spawning period, our freshwater sharks form small groups of 4-5 individuals.

The almost cylindrical elongated body of the Shch. with single fins related to the tail testifies to its ability to develop lightning speed.
All plumage is well developed, has a paddle-shaped - rounded shape, which also has a positive effect on the hydrodynamics of the animal.

Closely adjacent to each other, small scales form a dense monolithic cover throughout the body, protecting its mistress from the sharp teeth of insatiable relatives and other predators.

Mouth, vision, sense organs

The flattened wedge-shaped snout of the pike opens up an additional field of view, increasing the sector of the binocular - frontal field of view, with which the pike estimates the speed of moving objects and the distance to them.
Thanks to this feature of the structure of the skull and high-set eyes, Shch can view the water area above him as well as from the side, and it’s good to see oncoming objects below him.
But the wide mouth reduces the viewing angle of the lower space, interfering she can see the target at close range if it is below her level.

Anglers who know this feature try not to “feed” baits close to the bottom and use spinning baits based on this.
It should be noted that the predator also hears well as it sees. Thanks to the lateral line, it can hunt even in muddy water, catching the source of the slightest fluctuations in the aquatic environment from a great distance.
An experiment with a blind individual that has been successfully obtaining food for itself for many years indicates how developed and sensitive this organ is in pikes.

The snout, wide and elongated, like that of a crocodile, has a significant capture area, and the peculiarity of the structure of the gill membranes, disconnected from each other, does not prevent the predator from opening its mouth wide, which allows it to swallow food of large sizes.
The pike is the only freshwater fish capable of completely swallowing a representative of its own species 2/3 of its length in size. Based on this fact, you should not avoid large baits, especially during the autumn zhora.

Predator teeth and their change

Half the length of the huge head is the mouth, which is literally dotted with sharp teeth. Some of them are located on the jaws and consist of sharp fangs of different sizes, planted at a small distance from each other. On the tongue and palate there are bristle teeth representing a fleecy cover
from needle-shaped formations resembling the bristles of toothbrushes stacked in rows.

Shch's teeth do not take part in the chewing process; they serve to hold prey. This main weapon of a predator causes serious injuries to inexperienced anglers who do not know how to properly handle it.
Even scratches from the small teeth of a small pike are very painful and heal for a long time, and besides this, the sharp edges of its gill covers can easily cut a finger or hand.

Fish should be taken out of the water with a net, taken only with special protective gloves with a durable coating. Before the exhalation of the bait, the mouth of the pike must be fixed with a yawner; extractor, while the head of the fish is gently held with one hand under the gills, pressing it to a hard surface, it is possible to the ground.

The gluttonous inhabitant of our fresh waters "watches her mouth" and regularly changes her old and damaged teeth.

Many anglers assume that the change of teeth occurs after spawning, as well as on the full moon, arguing that Sh. because of this, stops feeding and pecking at this time.

The change of teeth in pikes is not periodic, but is a continuous process that occurs throughout their lives, naturally, they do not stop eating during this, which means they can be successfully caught.

The absence of biting immediately after breeding is explained by the decline in the strength of an animal exhausted by spawning, and by no means by the renewal of teeth.

Body coloration

Camouflage - destructive coloration using a camouflage pattern in the form of light transverse stripes and spots located almost all over the body, except for the belly, allows the pike to go unnoticed anywhere in the reservoir, regardless of its landscape.

It is especially effective in places with dense vegetation and snags. The "camouflage robe" of the toothy predator is such that it is difficult to say which color is the background and which one belongs to the drawing.
Its tone depends on the age of the fish, the water environment, the food supply and some other factors that affect the formation of biological pigment.

Young pikes - grassworts have a lighter color, it darkens with age. In closed, silty water bodies, the high content of carbon dioxide and nitrogen affects the excretory properties of alkaline, which darkens their color.

The most common coloration, characteristic of most common pikes, is a gray-green background with olive spots and stripes on it. The back is usually dark, the belly is light yellow or grayish-white with gray speckles. The fins are gray, covered with light stains and stripes.

Spawning

Pike spawns the very first of all freshwater fish. Females spawn upon reaching the age of three and a body length of 35-40 cm, males, inferior to them in size, become suitable for breeding 1.5-2 g later.

Spawning time in the southern regions falls at the end of February - beginning of March, after the ice melts, with the onset of floods. In lakes, spawning occurs a little later, since the ice cover lasts longer in them.
The water temperature in this case corresponds to 3-7 ˚ C.

Unlike other fish spawning by seniority, our heroines follow the reverse order - from the youngest, spawning first, to the oldest, completing the four-week cycle of pike spawning.

For spawning, river Shch. enter floodplain floods, tributaries, choosing shallow areas with a quiet current in them.

Lake pikes toss the game in shallow coastal waters, where the depth does not exceed 1 m.
The fertility of predators depends on age and size, ranging from 50 pcs. up to 180 thousand eggs. Group spawning, allowing almost all eggs to be fertilized, there are 2-4 males per female. The time of the incubation period of eggs is related to the water temperature, at 6-7˚ C it takes from 10 to 14 days.

In the first days, the larvae feed on zooplankton, grow rapidly, begin to eat insects, worms, caviar, fish larvae, and very soon the grown-up squints turn to small fish.

Food and nutritionpike

A hungry pike loses all caution, grabs everything that turns up to her: small rodents, frogs, molting crayfish, waterfowl, even just shiny objects. But basically her food consists of live fish, and not just any.

Despite its voracity, our freshwater shark is wary of ruffs, perches, pike perches that can injure it with their sharp plumage, does not like tench and burbot for their unpleasant mucus. She squeezes the caught ruff or perch in her teeth for a long time until she feels that he cannot resist.

Food in the stomach of freshwater predators is digested very slowly, this explains their insatiability, forcing voracious fish to feed to failure - until the entire digestive tract is completely filled.

During the spring zhor, which comes with the first melting of ice, you can see how the tail of the caught fish sticks out of the pike's mouth, indicating that its stomach is full. Unable to digest the scales and hard parts of the food she has eaten, she regurgitates them.

The process of feeding in Sh. is irregular - after eating, they digest what they eat for several days, without even thinking about food.
Active feeding in populations of Shch. is observed three times a year: spring - pre-spawning zhor, then fattening after spawning, occurring in April or May, and autumn zhor, starting with the first cold snap.

The period of active zhora of a pike can be determined by its behavior. At this time, she often jumps out of the water, during the "fight" of the fish, pursues and greedily grabs the catches fished by the fishermen, being carried away by the pursuit of them, often jumps ashore.

Eyewitnesses noted the following fact: a pike, which grabbed a large goose by the leg, did not let it go even on the shore, where it hardly managed to get out.
Shield grabs its prey as it will, then turns it head first if it is not possible to swallow it completely, waits for the swallowed part to be digested, then swallows the rest. In winter, toothy feeds rarely, saves energy.

Wayspike fishing

The pike is the record holder for the number of gear, devices and methods of catching invented for the sake of catching it. It is fished with spinning rods, bottom and float fishing rods, samolov, vents, mugs, hooks and other bells and whistles, but bottom tackle using live bait is considered the most effective fishing for Shch from the shore.

The pike does not swallow the live bait immediately, so you should not rush to hook, you should wait a bit until 3-4 m of fishing line is etched or leave 2 m of allowance in the form of sag on gear without a reel.

In the summer, the most productive fishing takes place in the morning and evening hours, in autumn it is not necessary to rush to the pond, you can wait until the water warms up.
Rotating and oscillating baubles used with spinning have proven themselves well for catching spears.

In overgrown - impassable places for baits, pike are caught with surface wobblers: poppers, walkers, gliders, crawlers, throwing them into windows clean from vegetation.

It is not always possible to catch a toothy predator near the surface of the biotope - only in the warm season, in cold water it is inactive, it is in the lower layers of the reservoir and hunts only from ambush, attacks the target swimming close, almost not reacting to what is happening near the surface.

The toothy hunter usually guards her prey standing in the thickets at the border of vegetation with clear water or on the section of stagnant water with the current, but even in this case she needs shelter, and in a calm environment.
Cloudy days are considered the best weather for catching Shch in open water.

Many anglers fish this fish in the winter in a vertical way, using winter spinners and balancers.
Despite its torpedo-shaped body shape, which allows the pike to develop great speed, in winter it does not resort to its sprinting abilities, it moves little and slowly - only when it is urgently needed.

Low-fat pike meat is considered a valuable dietary product, revered by nutritionists and recommended for overweight people.