Identify this Fish

[scsavre]

I caught this fish a few years back and was never really sure what it was. It was about two pounds and I caught it up in DL. I thought it was some kind pickerel, but neither myself nor any of my friends are experts like FM users.

Feel free to guess, or tell.

[poutpro]

looks like a crappie that was breed with a pike to me.

[river rat316]

Looks like a chain pickerel to me, but they shouldnt be this far north from what I read about them

[Ice-9]

By shape of body and fins, I'd say it's a northern. If you reverse the colors, it would look more normal. Is there a genetic condition that might reverse the color scheme? I don't think it's a pickerel (fin shape) or muskie (body shape).

Ice

[gunflint]

I'll go along with chain pickerel.

[NE angler]

Looks like a chain Pickerel - we catch a few in these parts.

[Gissert]

I agree with a chain pickerel. Perhaps is came in someone's bait bucket?

[deacon]

[Please read forum policy]

[rollz2002]

That is just your basic northern pike with a little color variation. Chain Pickerel are almost all green even their sides. This has the wrong markings also. The chain pickerel also has distinct "chain link" markings.

[Ice9]

Not a chainie. THey're lankier, more big-headed usually, but it's the shape of the after fins. Northerns have rounded dorsal and anal fins. Chainies have lengthy, more extended fins.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/education/chainpickerel/chainpickerel.html

Ice

[hip_hop_fisherman]

I would also have to go with northern, after comparing some pics I would say definitly not a pickerel. Maybe it is something to do with genetics?

[Dotch]

There was a large northern with similar markings featured on the cover of Outdoor Snooze not too long ago. Had to look twice to be sure my coffee hadn't been laced.

[Tonka Boy]

I catch a few like that each year in Canada. To this day I still don't know what or why, but I had always assumed they had some muskie genes. I've caught tigers before, but this is almost half way between a nort and a tiger??

I'd like to hear an expert opinion on this one. Good topic!!

[lars0926]

I can ensure this is a northern pike. Not a variety or cross. From back in my college days I did some work with genetic variations with fruit fly's. Genetic variations, like albinism in mammals, pop's up for evolutionary purposes. I've seen fish eye color differences, with pop up in about one in every 4096 on a Punnett square, but never such a dramatic color variance like what is shown on this pike.

There is a text on the subject called "Genetics and Fish Breeding." It appears that (rather than a non-dominant color variance as I'd anticipated) this white color is actually an ornamental variance. In other words, this probably does not pop up for hiding better, but instead most likely for sexual purposes.

Judging from the bars, they may be slightly wider than is typical. This change could go hand in hand with the color change, but would selective for hiding better. In the case of this fish though, I doubt that any of these recessive traits offer a competitive or sexual advantage, and thus remain rare as they probably make the fish more susceptible.

If you should catch four of these fish in an outing, with one being a female, we could probably make a new strain of pike.

[fish-n-geek]

I have to agree with lars. I had the WI DNR take a look at the pictures and they were 99% sure it was a non-hybrid northern with some unique colorations.

Neat fish

-r-

[efgh]

There are a few northen pike in Winnie that look like this, they are always smaller, the ones we got were never over 3# , we though at first they were musky but the pour holes under the jaw were wrong and the head was shorter, who ever wrote about mutlated pike is probley right.

[Bushwacker]

There is a mounted northern pike at Nodaks Resort on Winnie that looks a lot like this fish.

[snagged]

To me this just looks like a northern that has odd markings. Does kind of look like a northern/muskie mix though.

[dwag70]

The famed and often thought of as extinct BLUE PIKE or also known as the SILVER PIKE

[hip_hop_fisherman]

It is my understanding that a blue pike looks (looked) more like a walleye? Am I wrong? I know they used to catch them in Lake Erie.

[dwag70]

To tell you the truth I do not remember but I did see a show about them a couple of years ago

It is a very interesting Fish

[scsavre]

The blue pike that I have seen are exactly what the name indicates. I have seen one first hand on Big Sandy lake near McGregor when my friend caught one. It looked like a normal pike with a blue tint to it. We sent the picture to Infisherman and they identified it and wrote an article in response. They said that there is still a limited number of lakes that have them in MN. And can be anywhere from just a tint of blue to an actual almost domonately blue fish.

I would love to catch a 15- 20 lb pike like the one pictured though. It would make for a great mount.

[hip_hop_fisherman]

After a little research I found there is actually two "blue pike" heres a little text on each...

The blue pike was pursued intensely by commercial and sport fishers, who together landed a billion pounds of the fish between 1885 and 1962. At times, the blue pike made up more than 50 percent of the commercial catch in Lake Erie. During the 1900s, several non-native species of fish were introduced to the Great Lakes, including the sea lamprey, alewife, and rainbow smelt. These contributed to the decline of the blue pike through predation and competition.The population crashed in 1958, but the species lingered on until it became "officially" extinct in 1970. In the same general time period, three other species of fish endemic to the Great Lakes also disappeared. These were the deepwater Cisco (C. Johanna) in the 1950's, native to Lake Huron and Lake Michigan; the black fin Cisco (Coregonus nigripinnis) in the 1960s, native to all of the Lakes except Erie; and the longjaw Cisco (C. alpenae) in the 1970's, native to Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan.

Still today, there remains conflicting stories about its demise. Many Fishermen report catching Blue Colored Pike in lakes in Canada and Minnesota.

The blue pike is not to be confused with Lake Erie’s famous pickerel (walleye) bearing the same name and now believed to be extinct. This fish is a full-fledged member of the pike family (Esocidae).

It feeds like a pike, fights like a pike and looks like a pike except for one striking difference – it has no body spotting, but exhibits beautiful iridescent blue-silver flanks. In many areas, most often the U.S., the silver is the more prominent tone.

Therefore, most U.S. specimens are referred to as silver pike. This term was first attached to specimens obtained from a lake in Minnesota in 1930. But the first known professional assessment in Ontario was made by a man named Prince after examining a specimen caught near Skarbot Lake in 1898.

Kind of interesting!

[Tonka Boy]

Quote:

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I would love to catch a 15- 20 lb pike like the one pictured though. It would make for a great mount.

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I do have a pic of a 38" that is very similar. I'll try to dig it up and scan it over the weekend.

[Shad rap]

I agree it’s a northern. I went though the Iowa fish hatchery in Sprit Lake this spring. In there display tanks they had three northern in it one was the regular northern the other one was a silver northern then the last one they had it named a striped northern. And it looks just like the one in you’re picture. That was the first time I have ever seen one.