Does anyone know what this it?

[NickC]

I rented a boat with my brother and his buddy Monday morning and this is one of the things we landed that day. At first i thought it was a baby muskie but then just thought it was some kind of northern pike. I remember seeing a chart with pictures of the pike family and one of them being a spotted pike of some sort but im not sure where i seen it and cant find it. I want to think i seen the chart of a muskie charter i was on 2 summers ago which would tell me its a muskie but i cant be sure.

From the pictures i have came up with online, it does not look like a young northern or a young muskie but i know the lake is FULL of both 

[Tom Courtright]

um
its a fish

[kenz]

Looks like it could possibly be a young spotted muskie. There are three types, spotted, and barred, which are natural strain, and the tiger which is a hybrid cross between a northern pike and spotted muskie. Anyway he looks a little small to keep. 

[NickC]

Now that you mentioned there are 3 types of muskie, its got to be a muskie. I do remember looking at a chart on that muskie charter i was on and its the only place i think i would of seen the different muskies. I don't know why i could not find them online though, i even typed in "spotted muskie" 

Yes you are correct about the keeping size, it was even to small if it was a northern. Northerns have to be 24" and the muskies have to be 42" ( ) and this was only 21". Even if it was keeping size, i usually throw pike back because i don't know how to get that 'Y' bone out of them...

I always remember the sizes of the fish we catch because we always throw a bet out for the biggest fish caught over 10". It makes for a real neat day on the water if you have a few friends all throwing in $5 or $10 bucks each!

[Mitch]

That is definitely a Muskie. Muskie's are spotted, Northern's are striped.

[NickC]

To bad was not this size:



The lake that we fish on is suppose to be one of the best lakes in America to catch a muskie in, i hear people from all over come to fish it. Now whether that's true or not i cant be sure, but its a neat thing to know considering it use to be a fish of a million cast's around here.

Also, as i was browsing muskie pictures i came across this one:



You can really tell that the the fish my brother caught was a muskie after seeing this.

[Mitch]

I head they are a PITA to catch. My father in law has been fishing for over 40 years, and caught his first Muskie this past spring.

[blown287]

um
its a fish

LMAO @ Tom 

[NickC]

I head they are a PITA to catch. My father in law has been fishing for over 40 years, and caught his first Muskie this past spring.

I guess they have been considered as "a fish of a million cast's" for a long time now but up until a few years ago they have became much more abundant. At least around here anyways...

I know the local charters do good on the lake in near (Lake St. Clair), that is when ever in not on them

I went out a few years ago on a muskie charter and came up with no pictures, story's, or fish's and a few sick dudes to top it off. But this guy had some pretty impressive pictures of his catch's.

[Silverbullit]

Looks kind of like what they call a Gar fish, sort of like the Pike family..

[NickC]

You mean a gar pike?



There are one of these monsters that's always swimming along a peer that i fish off of in the spring time. I have threw EVERYTHING at it and it bites on everything i throw at it but i still cant hook that damn thing! These fish are one of the harder fish to get hooked because of the bony mouth they have.

[replicator]

These look pike-ish. Nevertheless, do they intermittently produce tugging sensation once hooked? I love how almost every single pike i've caught has done that.

[kenz]

The Muskie (Muskellunge) is in the same family as the Northern Pike and Gar Pike. The Gar has a long nose full of teeth. Pike a fairly easy to get, muskies are extemely hard to hook. World record is like 69lbs. 

[NickC]

69...  That had to be fun 

[bran_gun08]

You mean a gar pike?



There are one of these monsters that's always swimming along a peer that i fish off of in the spring time. I have threw EVERYTHING at it and it bites on everything i throw at it but i still cant hook that damn thing! These fish are one of the harder fish to get hooked because of the bony mouth they have.

Me and my friends fish in a spillway for garr and they both got one and I didn't but it took forever for them to catch them.