Northern Pike (Esox lucius) lives in freshwater across North American Freshwaters. It feeds on fish and crustaceans. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Northern Pike
- A 25-kg pike once leapt onto a German lake's record books, dwarfing most of its kin. The IGFA currently recognises a 25 kg (55 lb) pike caught by Lothar Louis on Greffern Lake, Germany, on 16 October 1986, as the all-tackle world-record holding northern pike. Yet the species can stretch to 150 cm (59 in) and tip the scales at 28.4 kg (63 lb) in rare cases, showing how a single individual can outsize the average 40-55 cm length and still be a living trophy for anglers.
- A 50-centimetre pike weighs barely a kilogram, but add 15 centimetres and its mass doubles, thanks to a near-cubic growth curve. For northern pike, b = 3.096 and c = 0.000180 (c = 7.089 enables one to put length in meters and weight in kilograms). The relationship described in this section suggests a 50-centimetre (20 in) northern pike will weigh about 0.9 kg (2 lb), while a 65-centimetre (26 in) northern pike will weigh about 1.8 kg (4 lb). This math explains why the biggest specimens can hit 25 kg with relatively modest length gains.
- Northern pike can outlive many sport fish, sometimes reaching a quarter-century in the wild. Northern Pike typically live to 10-15 years, but sometimes up to 25 years. In captivity they average about 10 years, yet wild individuals have been recorded living up to 12 years, with some reaching the exceptional 25-year mark.
- It is commonly found in fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (i.e. it has a holarctic distribution). They are found from Labrador west to Alaska, south to Pennsylvannia, Missouri and Nebraska. Their broad tolerances for temperature, clarity and oxygen let them colonise almost any freshwater niche.
- When a pike spots prey, it launches a lightning-fast "fast start". Pike are capable of "fast start C" shape to brake, a tactic that lets a solitary ambush predator strike with precision and speed.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeNorth American Freshwaters
HabitatFreshwater
DietFish and crustaceans
About the Northern Pike
In the sun-dappled depths of northern lakes and rivers, the northern pike reigns as a sleek and formidable predator, its elongated body slicing through the water with deadly precision. With a subtle flutter of its fins, it can accelerate from stillness to lightning speed, striking with merciless intent as it pursues its unsuspecting prey through the aquatic underworld. As it glides effortlessly, its mottled scales blending seamlessly into the dappled shadows, the northern pike embodies the very essence of a wild and primordial power.
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