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Blue Pike Fishing.
An article from Ontario Fisherman Magazine

What is a blue pike?

The blue pike is NOT to be confused with Lake Erie’s famous pickerel (walleye) bearing the same name and now believed to be extinct. This fish is a full-fledged member of the pike family (Esocidae). It feeds like a pike, fights like a pike and looks like a pike except for one striking difference – it has no body spotting, but exhibits beautiful iridescent blue-silver flanks. In many areas, most often the U.S., the silver is the more prominent tone. Therefore, most U.S. specimens are referred to as silver pike. This term was first attached to specimens obtained from a lake in Minnesota in 1930. But the first known professional assessment in Ontario was made by a man named Prince after examining a specimen caught near Skarbot Lake in 1898. Prince named the fish blue pike because of the obvious colour. Therefore, on the grounds of historical efficacy and the fact most Ontario specimens are blue, blue pike aptly describes the fish’s main characteristic. In past readings, I had came across references to blue pike in some fisheries journals and at least one record book, but I never really became interested in this fish until hearing about it from Bill Tregenza, a top-notch guide at Marten River Lodge. Tregenza, who has fished and lived in the area around the lodge his entire life, informed me that Marten River Lodge provided day- trip access to some back lakes that produced what he called blue pike. He showed me a picture of one and it indeed was blue. Sensing the opportunity to catch one of these fish, I decided to try a couple of these lakes while staying at the lodge in the fall of 1994. As it turned out, seeing a picture of a blue pike from one of these lakes was much easier to accomplish than getting one on the end of my line. Two days of back lakes fishing produced one small blue pike for my fishing partner, John Walker. As you can be seen from the photos on the first page of this feature, the blue pike is a fantastic looking fish, with sheeny, blue sides, nearly clear fins and scales so fine they look and feel like those of a trout. But that was the only "blue" we could muster.

Background Details

The blue pike has an extremely wide geographic range in North America. In fact, its documented occurrences are from virtually every part of the known range of northern pike around the world, not just North America. Aside from the striking lack of body spotting and obvious colour differences, blue pike tend to be some- what narrower in body width than normal pike and have larger eyes. A small percentage had more lateral line scales than normal pike and upper and lower extensions of the mouth are shorter than those found on normal pike. From the reported cases to date, there is little consistency on where blue pike are likely to occur. Records have been obtained from small lakes, large lakes, the Great Lakes and rivers, but there has never been many of them. In one study, for example, it took the researcher seven years to sample 42 blue pike against 19,378 normal pike taken over the same period. Research undertaken by Eddy and Surber in 1943 stated that the silver pike was a true breeding mutant of the normal pike and would breed only with others of its kind rather than with normal pike. When crossed with normal pike in hatcheries, the resulting crosses had peculiar black-mottled markings that can best be described as similar to the markings found on a black crappie. These crosses are not considered to be true blue pike since both parents were not blue pike. In the U.S., silver pike have been reared in hatcheries and stocked in several lakes, so their distribution is wider than would be naturally the case. There is considerable interest south of the border in providing and managing silver pike as a specific sport fishery alternative. So how big do blue pike get? The official world record is given as 18 pounds and the live-release record as 43 inches.

Temagami Blue Pike

I headed up to Marten River Lodge this past summer, and this time, Tregenza had set aside five days to try to capture some larger blue pike. Though we caught several nice pike and lots of smallmouth bass the first day, we failed to catch a blue pike. On day two, the fishing slowed considerably until we found a small depression fronting an expansive shallow- low water patch of lilies and spike rush. In turn, all three of us had touches or follows from a pike. Finally, my fishing partner John Walker, using a minnow-tipped Sassy Shad, hit pay dirt as a swooping rush from below grabbed his jig. After setting the hook and playing the fish to boatside, guide Tregenza enthusiastically barked, "It’s a blue!", and immediately went for the landing net. Once safely inside, we celebrated the capture of our prize – a beautiful 28 inch blue pike. The fish was thoroughly photographed and then placed on a deep line until we could pick it up on our way out from the lake.

This fish would serve as a specimen for Dr. John Casselman, a noted pike specialist with the Fisheries Research Branch (Ministry of Natural Resources) at the Glenora Fisheries Station in Prince Edward County. The following day, we hit another lake in the hopes of again locking horns with the elusive blue pike. The fishing was excellent for pike, despite the fact it was sunny and warm, but by lunch, we had yet to connect with a blue. After a bite to eat, we quickly went to work in the bay across from the lunch site. As we cast to the weedy shore and took fish after fish, it was the guide’s turn to show his stuff. Tregenza brought to hand our second blue pike of the trip -a shimmering, clean fish of about 14 inches. While no monster, it revealed one important fact: young blue pike were still successfully hatching and growing in this lake.

An hour and a half later, he turned the trick again. This time, he landed a fabulous blue close to 30 inches that looked almost as clean as the previous fish. Its scales were as small and smooth as many rainbow trout I have taken and the fins were quite clear, having no hint of orange or red as is common with northern pike. The colours were awe-inspiring. Few of our freshwater fish, have this colour of blue to wow the eyes. In three days, we had managed to catch three blue pike. Including the previous year, we had caught 28 fish in one lake – 27 pike and one blue pike. In the second lake, we caught 76 fish, 73 pike and three blue pike. That worked out to four blue pike out of 100 pike in total. Given the fact Tregenza has never caught a pike from any of these lakes which appeared to be a cross between blues and normal pike, it would seem to verify the earlier evidence that these two pike forms are breeding true to their own. Or perhaps, a regularly - occurring genetic mutation is present in the normal pike population that periodically produces these unique looking fish. These two fish were caught from the same lake and are approximately the same size.

Subsequent examination of the blue pike specimen by Dr. Casselman revealed several interesting pieces of information. First, the fish was determined to be from the 1989 year class and about average for length and weight given its age, but had abnormally slow first year growth. Casselman also noted that the tips of the blue pike’s tail are significantly more pointed than those found on northern pike, more closely resembling the pointed tails of muskellunge. He also noted the shape of the snout was straighter in blue pike than normal pike, which tend to exhibit a marked concavity from the eyes to the tip of the snout. Of interest also was the fact the lakes from which these fish were caught are from an area where no previous specimens have been documented (the closest spot being about 100 kilometres away).

Blue Pike Locations

For those interested in seeking out blue pike, here are some spots where specimens have been reported: the St. Lawrence River in eastern Ontario; the Mississippi River and associated chains of lakes in eastern Ontario; Lac Seul, Eagle Lake, Little Vcrmilion Lake, Poobah Lake and Crooked Lake in northwestern Ontario; Gort Lake near Geraldton; the Jocko River east of North Bay; Silver Lake near Maberly; and the waters in the Sturgeon River drainage basin of the Temagami region. If you, or somebody you know, has caught a blue pike, Ontario Fisherman would like to hear about it. Write us and send along a picture. Editor’s Note: Ontario Fisherman wishes to acknowledge the resources provided and scientific wisdom from Dr. E.J. Crossman and Dr. John Casselman in researching this article.

This article was taken from The Martin River Lodge Website. Marten River Ontario, Canada http://www.martenriverlodge.com/pike.html

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