THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



bear in mind the one point mentioned regarding all 

 pickerel — the squamation of cheeks and gill-covers — 

 and will take pains to examine his captures, he may be 

 certain of their identity. Any pike with cheeks covered 

 with scales, while the gill-covers are decorated on the 

 upper portions only, is a great pike — the great pike. 



We have to do with a real fish now, a pike worth 

 while. Personally, I had just as soon fish for great 

 pike as muskellunge, for the former will attain a 

 weight of forty pounds or so, a sixteen- or twenty- 

 pound fish being not at all uncommon. Pound for 

 pound, I cannot see much difference in the game 

 qualities of the great pike and the muskellunge, though 

 I cannot imagine what anglers will do to me for con- 

 fessing such heresy. To my notion, in cold water a 

 great pike is every whit as gamy as a muskellunge. 



As this fish coexists with the Great Lakes muskel- 

 lunge, the angler should be able to tell the two apart, 

 which is an easy matter if he has impressed upon him- 

 self the cheek and gill-cover scaling of the great pike. 

 Cheeks fully scaled and only upper halves of gill- 

 covers. The muskellunge, on the other hand, can show 

 scales only upon the upper halves of both. If the angler 

 discovers that a capture of his is without scales upon 

 the lower halves of cheeks and gill-covers, he may be 

 assured that he has taken a muskellunge, no matter 

 what its shape or color or markings. However, in 

 body-form and color the great pike does not ordinarily 

 resemble the muskellunge, being more "pot-bellied" 

 and of a darker hue. 



The coloration and markings of the great pike are 

 more constant — at least, so it is said — than that of 

 any other member of the family. The ground color is 



38 



