Other Game Fish 22 1 



pletely covered with scales, as is also the whole cheek for- 

 ward of the opercle. In the pike, the cheek retains its full 

 quota of scales, but the lower half of the opercle is devoid of 

 them. In the muskellunge only the upper half of the cheek 

 retains the scales, its lower half being scalelessj authorities 

 differ as to whether the whole of the opercle is scaleless, or 

 only its lower half, as in the pike. 



The muskellunge lives in the Saint Lawrence and Great 

 Lakes regions. It spawns from the time ice goes out until 

 late April or May. One female may produce from one to 

 three hundred thousand eggs in the course of a season. They 

 hatch, in from twelve to twenty days at 50 to 60 degrees, into 

 fry one-quarter to one-half inch long. At first they feed on 

 larvae such as the "blood-worm," but by the time they are 

 five weeks old and two inches long they have graduated to 

 small minnow fry. They have a tendency to creep up on their 

 victim, curling before they strike, and perhaps it is this slow- 

 ness of movement which accounts for their very high mor- 

 tality in the early stages. They may find each other easier 

 prey than minnows. 



At one year they average 8 inches, two years 16 inches, 

 three years 22 to 24 inches, six years 35 inches, twelve years 

 48 inches — ^with variations depending on local conditions. 

 Sexual maturity comes in the fifth or sixth year. The maxi- 

 mum age recorded is twenty years 5 maximum weight, no 

 pounds. The adults eat fish, frogs, and aquatic mammals. 



The hardiness of the family equals that of its distant rela- 

 tive, the Alaska blackfish, described in an earlier chapter, for 

 a well-known and highly respected fisherman tells of catching 

 pike through the ice, laying them aside until frozen stiff, and 

 then thawing them out in the bathtub at home until they 

 revived and splashed about lustily. 



