No wonder all fishermen consider pike an enviable prey. These fish are distinguished not only by their excellent reaction, but also by their intelligence – they learn very well from their own experience. And since they live for a long time, it is really not easy to catch an old and smart pike.
Interesting facts about pikes
- These fish are found only on two continents – in Eurasia and Northern America.
- There are seven species of pike in the world.
- They hunt mainly for fish, but on occasion they can also devour the chick of a waterfowl, for example, a little duckling (interesting facts about birds).
- Pike grow throughout their lives, and can reach a length of 2 meters.
- In addition to fish, they willingly include frogs, tadpoles, small lizards and rodents that dare to swim across the reservoir in their menu.
- Pike meat contains only a few percent fat, and therefore is considered dietary.
- In the first year of life, this fish grows up to 60-70 cm in length, after which the growth rate slows down, and it begins to add 2-3 centimeters annually.
- Pike teeth are replaced with new ones as they are lost or wear and tear throughout their lives.
- They also have cannibalism – adult pikes can easily eat their own relatives, inferior to them in size.
- For one spawning in a female pike, depending on the species accessories can lay up to 250 thousand eggs.
- These fish live only in fresh water, but sometimes they are also found in desalinated rivers of coastal marine areas.
- They attack any prey that they can overcome. So, there have been cases of hardened old pikes attacking adult ducks and muskrats.
- The weight of an old pike can reach 33-35 kg, but this is rare – they rarely live to such a solid size.
- They live only in cold water.
- The pike prefers to hunt from ambush. It usually freezes motionless in thickets of vegetation in shallow water, from where it rushes at its prey with a sudden jerk.
- These fish are easily able to cope with prey half the size of themselves.
- The pike appears in folk tales and legends of all countries in which it is found.
- Depending on the region of catch, fresh pike caviar can be poisonous to some extent. However, if it is salted, then it can be safely eaten.