MUSKY, PIKE OR PICKEREL? 135 



or 40 pounds are called pickerel by many fishermen. 

 The body color of the pike varies greatly, but as a 

 general thing it has a greenish-yellow back and sides, 

 with yellow spots dotted over the entire body. The 

 spots are round and look as if they might have been 

 daubbed on with a round brush full of yellow paint. 

 The dots and body color vary from light to dark 

 tints in different fish. 



The true pickerel also has dots of yellow and 

 sometimes of a silver gray, and they are oblong or 

 oval in shape and run lengthwise with the body, 

 nf-er vertically. These, markings are so numerous 

 that they seem to be the body color separated by a 

 dark tracing around the irregular placed spots. 

 They run in no special design or regularity and do 

 not look as much like spots as those markings of 

 the pike and musky, nor do they stand out as dis- 

 tinctly. 



The musky is a scrapper from the strike to the 

 gaff, and he uses a tail full of tricks to break away. 

 He will flop up out of the water, giving his head a 

 shake like an angry bull pup ; he will make a dash 

 straight at the boat to go under it, and a favorite 

 trick is to flop up out of the water and corkscrew 

 back on the line, winding it around his snoot in an 

 effort to break it. None of these wise old actions 

 can be blamed on the pike or pickerel. They 

 haven't got it in 'em. They don't seem to have the 

 pep or wits of the musky, and they never break 



