DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 



I hold the resort men responsible for helping to 

 confound the muskellunge question, for they have ad- 

 vertised muskellunge fishing, knowing that men think 

 it an honor to take that fish, when what they had to 

 offer was great pike fishing. Now the great pike is 

 under no necessity of swimming under borrowed fins. 

 He is well able to care for himself as a plain, pugna- 

 cious great pike. As I have said before, and will en- 

 large upon later, I had just as soon go up against an 

 eight-pound great pike as a muskie of the same weight. 

 Fin for fin and scale for scale, I regard the former as 

 doughty an antagonist as the latter. Quite recently 

 there was shipped me from a Wisconsin resort the 

 head of a "muskellunge" which was said to have 

 weighed thirty-two pounds, and gave his lucky captor 

 a busy twenty minutes. Now that head — cheeks fully 

 scaled, gill-covers half scaled — disclosed a great pike. 

 Could that fish have rendered greater sport had he 

 worn cheeks and gill-covers half scaled? In the name 

 of Father Izaak, let us be fair to the great pike. 



As to the edibility of the members of this family, 

 there is no great unanimity of opinion. Most anglers 

 give the muskellunge high rank, the great pike low 

 rank — if under two pounds, and they call him "pickerel" 

 or "watersnake," no rank at all; while the little pickerel, 

 the creek fish, should hardly be mentioned in good 

 ichythic society. As to just why a muskellunge should 

 be regarded as "good eating," and a great pike of the 

 same size "poor eating," is beyond my comprehension. 

 The habits and food of the two fish are practically 

 the same — almost anything from a tin can to a member 

 of its own family. I cannot discover much difference 

 between the flesh of the two fish. All depends upon 



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