The Northern Pike (Esox lucius) is one of the most powerful and aggressive freshwater gamefish. Just like their close relative the Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) the will chase and usually take a swipe at anything you put in front of thier face.
There are a few ways to tell a pike from a muskie but the easiest would have to be the color. Northern Pike have an olive to dark green, or even brown body with golden flecks. They also have somewhere between 7 to 9 rows of yellowish white oval shaped spots. The belly of a pike is usually white or cream colored. The fins which are close to the tail are almost always a reddish color and they have black markings on them. Another name for the Northern Pike is the “gator”. It is easy to see how this name came about just by looking at any pike. The duckbill shaped jaws are filled with razor sharp teeth and at the roof of the mouth they have a tooth pad which has numbers of short curved teeth. So be cautious when you are removing the hooks from a pike. You should never try to lip a pike or never try to grab it from the water if it is still very lively.

Most pike like to live in thick weeds at a temberature between 67 to 72 degrees farenhiet, but large fish prefer much cooler temperatures between 50 and 55 degrees. Northern pike can be easily caught all year round, unlike their relatives the muskie the can be caught through ice too. Muskies are known to be the fish of ten thousand casts, but this is not true for the pike. A pike is not so selective about what it eats like a muskie is. Usually a pike will try to eat anything that is an easy target like a wounded fish or a small mammal swimming on the surface. The reason they will eat almost anything is because of the huge population of northerns compared to muskies. Which means if they don't eat it another pike will.