Crazy Pike

[Slednfool]

I took my daughters and a couple of their friends fishing and swimming at Lake Johanna in Arden Hills. I stop the boat in the middle of the lake and we all jump in and swim for a while, the three older girls get back on the boat and it is just me and my three year old hanging on to the swimming platform, my six year old says "what is that fish doing?" I think she is joking or mistaken, but I look back and ten feet behind and swimming directly at me is a huge pike with its head above the water and its mouth hanging open. I throw my daughter onto the platform and scramble out of the water as fast as I could. The fish just continued swimming slowly with its head above the water and mouth hanging open until it ran into the swimming platform, went beneath the water and swam away.

Needless to say, our swimming was over for the day, this grown man was scared [PoorWordUsage], I just hope the little girls are not too traumatized to ever swim off a boat again.

I was still laying on the platform with my face a couple feet from the fish when it swam away, I just remember the giant gaping maw lined with all the needle sharp teeth, I couldnt see the coloring, it could have been a tiger or a muskie (I think that lake has muskies). My girlfriend was standing on the back of the boat with a perfect view of the fish, she spread her arms and said "it was this big", about three feet I am guessing.

Has anyone ever seen this behavior in a Northern before?

The only thing I can think of is that the fish thought we were geese or ducks and this is how it catches them. Maybe its blind? I dont know, but in nearly twenty years of boating this was the craziest thing I have ever seen.

[Religion_Of_Fish]

It was most likely a Tiger Muskie. For whatever reason they swim like that with their head out of the water sometimes, I've seen it a few times and I think there is a youtube video of it where it is happening on another Minneapolis lake where they are stocked.

[goblueM]

yep prob a tiger muskie, they just do that randomly sometimes

[Slednfool]

You guys are right, I found some video of them doing it.

http://youtu.be/jqxhzDjhi8Q

http://muskie.HotSpotOutdoors.com/videos/10.11.2008/1181/Body.Surfacing.Tiger.Muskies/

Its one thing to be sitting in a boat seeing this happen, its quite another to be in the water watching it swim right at you. Freaky.

[CatholicConis]

Actually, I was on Medicine yesterday and I saw a medium sized pike do that. He was coming out of thick weeds, and so I don't know if he saw/heard my lure hit the water or what.

[fishuhalik]

ive seen something similar a few times. first time i saw it i didnt know what to think. it was a bigger pike (around 10lbs) and it slowly swam straight up, brought half its body out of the water, and just sat like that for about 30secs. i think it had a crappie or something stuck in its gullet and was trying to swallow it.

[Esox_Magnum]

Seen muskies do it many times, no idea why and never found anyone with a credible explination....

[BartmanMN]

I'll admit it, that would scare the snot out of me too.

[John478]

I've seem pike doing it, mainly after a big may fly hatch. I think there skimming bugs off the top of the water.

[BronzeBrother]

I was out on Mille Lacs last weekend walleye fishing in 33 feet of water, gravel. And we watched about a twenty pound musky doing the same porpoise type activity out there for about ten minutes too. It is odd behavior.

[DOC33]

Two years ago on opening weekend, saw a fairly good sized northern doing the exact thing. The guy I was fishing with said, "I thought he was gonna start talking." It was really strange and quite humorous after remembering the Trilene commercials with the talking bass.

[Southwick]

Seen Tiger Muskie from my state (Mass) swimming very slow and popping there heads out of the water + in was always the same time of year in the early summer. Never could get 1 to bite but was cool to see them.

[Nick Kuhn]

About the only thing well understood about that kind of behavior is that fish doing it do not bite.