Pike losing teeth

[whateverisbiting]

OK, I am sure this topic has been hashed out more than a few times, but I am going to start again. Last year at the cabin, we went two days without catching a northern on a tip up, a first for me. This year, the neighbor up there said he experiences that 1-2 weeks every January due to pike losing their teeth. He sees their gums turning red then no fish for 1-2 weeks and after that the fishing is fantastic. I go to Canada a lot, and one guy there is always talking about teeth and when the pike will turn on and after my 150-fish per day I just ignore that talk. According to fisheries people, pike are losing and growing teeth all the time and this is just an excuse that you could not find active fish. Still, its hard to discount decades of experience. Does anyone experience this phenonemon through the ice or in summer?

[andrew chadwick]

the fisheries people are correct, pike dont loose all their teeth at once. It is just an excuse fishermen make up for not being able to catch them...

[Selmer]

+1 what andrew said.

[riverrat56]

+2,

Its an old wives tale, although very agressive usually, pike can shut down and be hard to locate and catch. Still got them old teeth though...

[charlie1959]

Ive heard that pike put the feed bag on every third day,sorta makes sence when ive has real good luck in a spot one day and come back the next and dead or just hammerhandles,trouble is how to figure what the third day will be,go every day this has worked but u put in aloy of time.

[Gordie]

last year in feb I speared a few pike with quite a few teeth missing but not all of them. they were smaller pike not bigger than 3 1/2 lbs and I do rember there gums were really pink.

[charlie1959]

caught/realeasted 2 snakes yesterday and checked almost no teeth and there gums were red,have no idea about the larger ones havent got any.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

This got me curious so I did a little google-ing. Looks like each of you are right, they will lose teeth generally a result of ambushing prey and they do grow new ones in pretty quick. Will lose teeth all year round too, not just in winter

[SHAQ]

That dude caught pike with missing teeth so obiously they still bite, That saying is a rumor for sure only people 50 plus would beleave that.

[Nick Kuhn]

They're like sharks, old ones break out and new ones are constantly growing in. Think about yourself... If you have a toothache you may not have any snacks but when meal time rolls around you're still going to eat.

[SHAQ]

yea man thats what im talkin about

[whateverisbiting]

Thanks all for the comments...OK, I'll stick with what I thought originally based on the Canada fishing...the losing teeth theory is just a lame excuse!

[bigreddog]

Went perch fishing the other day and hooked into six pike. Four out of the six bit me off. People were telling me that the pike were in the middle of losing their teeth. My four lost lures say differently. The two I actually got up the hole had a few missing teeth, but I still would not have gone and lipped one.

[MN Angler]

I have got quite a few pike in the 35 to 40 in range. I have heard the whole tooth loss theory as well and believe it to some extent. I believe that they lose teeth year round and have definately noticed that from my experiences they do seem to have less teeth in the winter. caught a 38 incher last winter on my 4 lb mono and the only reason I got it in was due to its lack of teeth.

MN Angler

[Gordie]

MNangler you know as well as I do that fish that big dont need teeth to eat they just open the mouth and swallow whole

[MN Angler]

Ha Ha yes elwood that is true.

[whateverisbiting]

So the point is, yes, missing teeth, but it did not stop the fish from eating.

[icefisker]

If you check some pike in the winter (especially this time of year) the gums of the fish will appear to be grown over the teeth. You can actually rub your fingers inside the pikes mouth and feel the teeth underneath like on a baby. Try it out. I think a lot of old people used to say that they would "lose their teeth" this time of year. In my experiance fishing for pike gets tough for a few weeks in january but then really turns on near the end of the month. IM not a biologist or anything and maybe Im just bad as fishing. Whatever.

[Sonicrunch]

pike don't have teeth

you guys are all crazy

heheheheh

[whateverisbiting]

I spent 5 years in California in the early 90s. Someone let some notherns go into a stocked rainbow trout lake and the northerns took off and got huge. There are not many northerns in the state, so they were not used to them. The resorts on the lake were calling for the lake to be killed off and restocked because their customers were afraid of the fish...not family friendly is I think how they put it!