I have retained a lifelong fascination with the species Esox Lucius. There are many reasons for this fascination, not least of which is the fact that for apparently simple creatures, they can appear to be so contrary in their habits, often confounding our best efforts to predict their behaviour. 
However, added to this, must also be that pike are still a truly ‘wild’ fish in every sense of the word. For me, another factor in what makes them such a unique species in many angler’s eyes is that the species appears to be so adaptable. Rare indeed is any type of reasonably large venue that cannot be successfully colonised by pike.
In fact, it is this very adaptability that has led to the species being so widespread throughout the northern hemisphere. 

Yet besides Esox lucius, there are five other members of the Esox family. None of which occupies anything like the same extended range as the pike, neither are any present in Europe, yet I am sure many keen pike anglers would be more than interested in having a meeting with at least one other member of the Esox’s extended family. In fact, that is precisely what a number of pike anglers from the UK are starting to do, by travelling to North America to fish for our own pike’s American cousin - the mighty muskie.
However, it did occur to me that many readers may only have a hazy idea what a musky is, or for that matter how they relate to the esox family as whole. So I thought this all too brief overview of the entire esox species would be useful, and where else could we start than the pike’s most spectaculer North American cousin.

The muskie, or to give it’s full name muskellunge, original North American range was the St. Lawrence River, throughout the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi River basin. However, because of their popularity as a sport fish, intensive muskie management programmes exist throughout the Midwest and Canada.

The quickest way to tell a northern pike from a muskie is to note that the northern has light markings on a dark body background. Muskies generally have dark markings on a light background. Muskies generally have three different variations; dark spots on a light background, dark bars on a light background, and a much rarer patterning, which is occasionally seen throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, which has very few no marks or very faint marks on the rear third of the fish.

Pike also have rounded tail fins, compared to the pointy tail fins of a muskie. Paired fins under the body of the Northern Pike are more rounded to the Muskie, which has slightly more pointed fins. Likewise the tail of the musky has more pointed features when compared to the pike’s more rounded tail.

Generally, the average angler-caught muskie is much larger than the average northern pike. Although genetics plays a role in this size difference fishing regulations that protect muskie with a minimum-size limit but allow a liberal harvest of small to medium-size limit are also clearly another factor.
The largest muskie caught supposedly weighed 69lb 11oz., caught by a Louis Spray in 1949 from the Chippewa Flowage. The fish was supposed to have had a length of 63 ½ inch, I will leave the accompanying photo to allow readers to make up their own minds on this. Second spot is held by a 67Lb 8oz muskie caught by Wisconsin angler, Cal Johnson, curiously also in 1949. There are similar doubts as to the veracity of this fish.

More recently a fish of 65lb has been reported in 1988 caught by a Ken O’Brian from Blackstone Harbour, Georgian Bay Ontario. Reportedly on his first fishing trip after musky on a four-inch Rapala – clearly one of the most specatcualr cases of begnniners luck ever! This fish, was reportedly weighed on a set of certified scales and there seems to have been no shortage of credible witnesses, it had a length of 53.5 inches and a girth: 31.5 inches.
Many muskies of 30lb are reported, and many of these may even well be perfectly credible. However, I am always a little sceptical of weights of any fish which give the appearence of having been extrapilated from length mesurements rather than actual weighing.

TIGER MUSKIE
The tiger muskie Esox lucius x Esox masquinongy, as the Latin name makes clear, the result of cross breeding between the male northern pike and a female muskellunge. Although some natural cross breeding takes place in the wild, most tigers are the result of a deliberate cross breeding programme that is carried out in the number of American states.

Anglers in this country may wonder why various fish commissions should go to the trouble and expense of carrying out such programmes. The answer is that as the species is a hybrid, the tiger muskie possesses a quality that is known to scientists as ‘hybrid vigour’. In short, a cross-breed is usually faster growing and hardier than their purebred parents. They can also be raised more easily in hatchery conditions than purebred pike or muskies The downside is that the male tiger muskie is sterile, so the fish usually only exists where stocking occurs. But it also means that tigers can be stocked into waters which are less favourable to either pike or muskies. Tigers are also said to be easier to catch than purebred muskies in particular.
Can you imagine our own E.A, even if they had the opportunity of access to two different Esox species, undertaking work of this nature for a fish that doesn’t have a adipose fin? No, I didn’t think you could.

AMUR PIKE
The Amur pike (Esox reichertii) is perhaps the most enigmatic of the larger esox species. Hardly surprising really considering that the species’ natural range is confined to south eastern Siberia. Especailly the River Amur, which for much of its 1,755-mile length forms the boundary between Russia and China. The Ussuri, one of the Amur's tributaries, as well as the Onon river forms another considerable length of the border is also another and provides habitat for the Amur pike.

The species is quite distinct from other Esox species having dark spots on a light/silvery background, it is sometimes referred to as the spotted pike.

As ever with all esox species there are tales of fish weighing upwards of 40lb, the only hard evidence of sizes tends to suggest a more likely average of 2lb to 10lb with the occasional fish touching 20lb. However, the species is quite rare even in its main range.

Although, as I have said, the natural range of the Amur pike is confined to south eastern Siberia, there was an intriguing attempt in 1968 by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission to introduce the species into North America. A number were stocked into Glendale Lake in Pennsylvania, along with some other stockings. However, most accounts maintain that the species has since die out and little has been heard concerning capture of Esox rechertii since the mid 1970s. Introguing, nonetheless.

PICKERELS
So much for the larger members of the Esox family, but there are three smaller members, known collectively as pickerels and all occupying various ranges on the North American continent.

From an angling perspective, the Chain pickerel (Esox niger) is the only pickerel which grows large enough the excite the interest of some anglers. Even then with an average size of between 2 to 4lb and a maximum weight of around 7lb, this species is hardly in the same  heavyweight leagu as their better known members of the esox family.

The chain pickerel has a dark, greenish-yellow back, fading to lighter yellow-green along the sides. Over the sides is a pattern of dark chain-like markings that gives the fish its name. The belly is white. A dark mark tear-shaped mark is usually present below each eye.

They are found in waters as far west as Texas. However, the species is mainly a resident of the east coast, of North America with thriving populations in numerous lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and rivers of from Maine to Virginia. 
Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus) rarely grow over twelve inches long, so an adult grass pickerel could be mistaken for an immature northern pike or muskellunge, except for the scaling that covers its cheeks and gill covers. The grass pickerel is distributed throughout the Mississippi River watershed. 

Last, and it has to be said, very much least, is the redfin pickerel (Esox americanus). Very much the smallest member of the Esox family rarely exceeding more than ten inches in length. The redfin’s native range is along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida. In looks it resembles its close relative the grass pickerel with which it sometimes interbreeds. Given its diminutive size it rarely excites the interest of anglers, but does illustrate that there is more to the Esox family than our own Esox lucius.
James Holgate
 

This article was first published in Pike and Predators magazine