one pike ?

[mtnman]

I went out today for about 1.5 hrs and the only thing I caught was a small pike about 14 in. Now my buddy said it was a pickerel but ive never seen or heard of one getting caught around here. It hit on a orange, yellow and green spoon about 2 in. long! I caught it on my ulta lite throwing for smallies, heres a picture but not a good one!

 

[natetrack]

Kind of hard to tell. The shape definately looks like a pike or musky. Easiest way to tell, is a pike has spots running from head to tail, and the musky has vertical strips.

They sure fight even when they are that size. Fun to catch when nothing else is biting.

 

[muskie man]

nice

 

[mtnman]

Im kinda leaning towards this fish being a pike, I have caught alot of muskie and pike over the years and it doesnt look like what i normaly catch but Ive been search pictures of Pickerel and this fish looks nothing like a pickerel plus ive never seen or heard of a pickerel being caught around here. It had spots like a pike but it also had like a chain pattern also but im gonna go out on a lim and say PIKE FINAL ANSWER!

 

[Jim]

Take a look at this pdf. It compares pike vs pickerel vs tiger Musky.

https://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/fisheries/publications/esocids_poster.pdf

 

[mtnman]

Thanks Jim Now I will definately say pike! I know you can tell the difference between muskie and pike by how many pores they have under there lower jaw. A pike has less than 6 pores and a muskie has up to 10 I beleive. I never seen a pickerel before and a freind of mine said that this fish was pickerel but I think he's crazy. This was just a funky looking pike. IMBRED!!!