16 THE PIKES: DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 



is highly extolled by some, but can hardly be compared to the salmon, 

 black bass, or brook trout for pure gameness per se; that is, it does not 

 exhibit the finesse and elan of those superb game fishes. 



Most "mascalonge," however, are taken with hand line and trolling 

 spoon and hauled in hand over hand. With taut line and moving 

 boat the ''mascalonge" sometimes leaps above the water because it 

 can not get very far beneath the surface. As a rule, however, when on 

 the rod it does not leave the water and will not leap unless forced to do 

 so, but will endeavor to keep near the bottom or to reach the cover of 

 weeds or rushes. 



With proper tackle the "mascalonge" affords good sport, for, being 

 a powerful fish, it requires much skill and judgment on the part of the 

 angler to keep it away from the moss and grass bottom or from the 

 weeds and algae of the shore and to successfully bring it to gaff within a 

 reasonable time. The best bait is a large live minnow or frog, either 

 for casting or trolling, though for the latter mode of fishing a large 

 trolling spoon with single hook may be used. 



Regarding the Ohio fish, Henshall said that in the Ohio and its tribu- 

 taries the "mascalonge" is fomid in the summer and autumn in the 

 deepest holes of the streams and are then taken by stillfishing, the 

 bait being usually suckers of a half pound or more in weight. After 

 taking the bait the fish is given time to gorge it before striking or 

 hooking. He adds: 



It is now, however, a rare occurrence to take a "pike," as it is called, in these 

 waters, and the fact is talked of long afterwards and the head preserved as a 

 trophy, while the fish itself, being esteemed a great delicacy on account of its great 

 size and rarity, is made the piece de resistance of a formal dinner instead of being 

 preserved for a piece justificative. For five years I have endeavored to procure a 

 specimen of this rare fish in the Ohio Basin, but, beyond the head, my efforts have so 

 far failed. No one who is so fortunate as to capture a "pike" seems mlUng to part 

 with it for love of science or coin of the realm. 



Regarding its game qualities, Mosher wrote that when lying basking 

 in the sun they rarely take bait miless imusually attractive, but when 

 lurking in the weeds or rushes, waiting for some living victim, they 

 will take artificial bait voraciously. But, he stated, they do not 

 seem to be so voracious as their smaller cousin the pickerel, and there 

 are times when for days together no amount of coaxing will induce 

 them to take bait of any kind. 



PIKE {Esox lucius) 



The pike, as previously mentioned, is the only species of the family 

 which occm's outside of North America. Its geographical range, 

 according to F. A. Smitt (1892), is from northeastern Siberia west to 

 the east of North America. According to Pallas, it inhabits the 

 River Amur, which falls into the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Rivers 

 Indigirka and Chatauga, which discharge into the Arctic Ocean, 



