NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1531405
68 Nebraskaland • December 2024 MIXED BAG CURIOSITY KILLED THE PIKE By Eric Fowler I love to fish for northern pike, one of the most aggressive, hardest-fighting fish swimming in our state. And I love to eat them, but that requires removing those pesky Y bones while cleaning the fish. A tip from a friend has proven true: Clean fish shorter than 26 inches and you end up with little scraps of meat after removing those bones, but bigger fish are worth the effort. That said, I wouldn't normally keep a 20-inch pike. But one such fish I caught from Hackberry Lake on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge forced me to break that rule. This fish had a bulging belly, and I just had to know what it had been eating. What I found when I opened the fish was what was left of two meals: a small bluegill that had measured 5 or 6 inches when it was whole, and the back half of a baby muskrat. All fish are opportunistic feeders. If they see it and can catch it, they will eat it. The larger members of the genus Esox that we have swimming in our waters — northern pike, muskellunge and their hybrid, the tiger muskie — are no exception. An apex predator that swims at the top of the aquatic food chain, pike are built for hunting. Their pointed head, for which they are named, slices through the water, leaving a clear path for their torpedo-like body. Their olive-green bodies, covered with drab yellow spots, provide the camouflage they need to hide in vegetation and wait for any unsuspecting fish, mammal or reptile to swim by. When that happens, they can accelerate like they've been shot out of a cannon, reaching speeds of 8 to 10 mph or more — a bit faster than the 5.1 mph average speed of American swimmer Caleb Dressel when he set the world record in the men's 50-meter freestyle. The canine teeth that ring their lower jaw and the brush- like teeth on the top jaw almost guarantee no prey will escape its bite. That includes mammals, whether they are born around water, like muskrats, or any prey that happens to pick the wrong spot to go for a swim. Daryl Bauer, a fisheries biologist at Nebraska Game and Parks, tells me he has seen or heard of both northern pike and channel catfish eating muskrats, as well as largemouth bass eating kangaroo rats and smallmouth bass eating mice. A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources report lists unlucky squirrels and sandpipers as occasional entries on a pike's dinner menu. Occasionally, their eyes and appetite are bigger than their gullet, and pike will choke to death on their prey. They aren't afraid to eat their brethren, either. I once landed a pike that had the tail of a smaller pike hanging out of its mouth. I'm not sure how he thought he was going to swallow my crankbait. Pike eat five to seven times their weight each year for their first two years and three to four times their weight afterward. Their appetite, and that of other Esox, has led to the creation of some creative fishing lures, the list of which includes rats, bats, mice, ducklings, birds, snakes and yes, even muskrats. "Remember, big baits equals big fish," Bauer likes to say. I think I will ask Santa for one of those fancy, and pricey, muskrat lures for Christmas, and head to the Sandhills next spring and test it out. If I'm lucky, I'll catch a pike longer than 26 inches and have a fish fry. Pike are opportunistic feeders. This one had eaten a bluegill and muskrat. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND