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Common Pike; Great Lakes Pike; Pickerel
This is the most widely distributed and most important species of the family. It is found in all suitable fresh waters of northern North America, Europe and Asia. In North America it is found from New York and the Ohio River northward. It is not found on the Pacific coast, except in Alaska. In the small lakes of the upper Mississippi Valley, and in the Great Lakes it is generally common. It is a common fish in Canada, where it is called "eithinyoo-cannooshoeoo" by the Creek Indians. It reaches a length of 4 feet and a weight of 40 pounds or more.
Its great size and fairly good game qualities make it a fish which is much prized by many anglers. It is taken in the various ways by which the eastern pickerel is captured, from which its habits are not materially different. In Europe it is more highly esteemed than with us. Walton devotes an entire chapter to it, concluding with directions how to "roast him when he is caught," and declaring that "when thus prepared he is 'choicely good'--too good for any but anglers and honest men." In Manitoba it is the jack-fish, according to Mr Ernest Thompson Seton.
One of the best streams for great pike fishing of which we know is the Kankakee. In this sluggish river and its connecting lakes this fish is quite common, and reaches a very large size. The largest example of which we have any record as being taken in the Kankakee weighed 26 1/2 pounds.
Br. 14 to 16; D. 16 or 17; A. 13 or 14; scales 123; cheeks entirely scaly; upper part of opercle scaly, the lower half bare. General colour, bluish or greenish-gray, with many whitish or yellowish spots, which are usually smaller than the eye, and arranged somewhat in rows; dorsal, anal and caudal fins with roundish or oblong black spots; young with the whitish spots coalescing, forming oblique crossbars; a white horizontal band bounding the naked part of the opercle; each scale with a grayish V-shaped mark.