Pike – Esox of light
English: PIKE
French: PIKE
Dutch: PIKE
Danish: POCKET, PIKE
Occurrence
Pike is found in almost all our fisheries – rivers, ditches, joints, large lakes and saltwater seawater (near river mouths). These predators feel great even in the waters of the land of trout and grayling. Classic pike fisheries are overgrown and wild ponds, periodically flooded oxbow lakes. You can also count on catching a large pike in small post-excavation lakes as well as in large rivers and lakes.
Size Medium sizes: 45-65 Cm;
A record specimen: more than 1 m (8 Kg).
Current record: 24,10 Kg 130,0 m Marian Powlaczuk 1970
Pike often jump out of the water while hauling. They open their mouths, they open the gill covers wide and shake their heads trying to get rid of the bait. In order to prevent the pike from jumping out, the tip of the rod should be kept down. Sometimes it is even advisable to immerse the tip in water. A towed predator rarely decides to perform aerial acrobatics, if the reel brake is slightly set. Pike, who can pull the line almost always struggles near the bottom.
Where and when
Locating the pike is not difficult. You just need to look around for some small items. These predators always stand near places, in which small white fish gather.
Pike most willingly hunt hidden. Typical hunting grounds of these fish are under the leaves of waterlily, among the branches of submerged trees, and sometimes even under the piers or hulls of longer moored yachts.
Besides, pike prefer places, in which the shape of the bottom suddenly changes. Good fisheries are therefore located at the foot of the perch hills, in deeper holes or on definitely sloping edge slopes. In a relatively small area, say, near a small perch hill, sometimes it is possible to catch two or three medium sized pikes in a few casts.
However, large individuals are typical loners. They have strictly delimited hunting areas and do not tolerate any other smaller pike in their immediate vicinity. In the stomachs of large pikes, younger individuals of the same species were very often found.
In many lakes, beautiful pikes only stand and move in the water. Due to their size, they have no natural enemies and no longer have to hunt hidden.
The slender whitefish pikes are legendary, fish weighing over 10 Kg, constantly following the shoals of the whitefish in the depths of the water. The most intense chewing, when pikes eat half of their annual nutritional requirements, it comes in the spring.
The great hunt begins right after spawning (usually in April) and lasts until mid-June. In high summer, these predators do not have a good appetite.
At the end of September, with the first frost, pikes begin to feed very intensively, to accumulate the necessary amount of energy before the upcoming winter.
October is the peak season for good foraging. In autumn, pike feed best on warm days, when the fine morning mist stays above the water for a long time.
You can also count on a good catch in November.
In December, however, it is much more difficult – as the water cools down, the pike becomes numb and sometimes for days without eating. Only at noon, when the pale winter sun peeks out from behind heavy winter clouds, mottled predators come to life briefly.
