"Blue" Pike?

[schmedlap]

My sons and I were at Rock Isalnd Lake the last few days. VERY slow fishing, as they were all spread out suspended in 17-26 depths, at 10-18 feet for the most part. Trolling very flashy cranks off the South side drop off got a few pike. Nicest part was almost no one else out there, at all.
Anyway, last evening I pulled in the oddest coloured pike I have ever seen. I have seen variations, but never one that was very silvery on the sides, with almost no "mottle" or "spots", and with some black intrusions from belly and top, and a head that was quite "irredescent blue" on top and the gill plates. It was a classic pike in all other ways. About 60-65 cm, and very feisty. We didn't have my camera in the boat, as I had left it in the pocket of the "aromatic" shammy shirt I had changed earlier, and forgot to transfer.
We also removed the 2 small red snelled hooks from the tail end of a 3 hook bottom bouncer rig, with a few inches of trailing line, that were stuck in its belly skin, while removing our own (unbarbed, unlike the offending hooks - some ignoramus?) and releasing it. So maybe it will pass on its odd (?) genes.
Has anyone ever seen one in those colours?

[pike_king780]

Sounds like a silver pike with some "discolorations". There was actually a thread about this not to long ago (think it was black pike)maybe give the forum a search for black pike, there may be some info on there yud be intereested in.. . Very cool though, I'd like to catch one like that lol

[schmedlap]

I've seen "black pike", which seem to be common in certain lakes, and may be an issue of diet (?). But never one this silver with the bluish head.

[pike_king780]

There was some discussion about blue as well.. Silver pike I'm guessing based on your description though. Look em up, they're super aggressive and sometimes have been nknown to attack humans

[Levy]

Sound like a silver pike. Genetic variation of Northern Pike. They are common in some lakes in Northern Saskatchewan and i have seen some that are light blue in color. If you pick up the Northern Pike and Muskie book at wholesale sports it has a few paragraphs on them. Here is one i caught in Jackson Lake about five years ago.

[schmedlap]

OK. It's some genetic variation. But your Jackson Lake fish is no where near as "silvery", does not have the dark grey/blackish belly, or the "irredescence", particularly the quite blue head and gill plates. It's probably just a "variation of a variation", but it would be interesting to know if anyone has caught one more similar. If not, I intend to apply to name a new subspecies after myself (being the extremely humble fellow that I am?). I have one witness - sufficient for this project?

[Levy]

Knowing a paleontologist who has named new species, and after hearing what the process is like i would say if it met the criteria you would need a PHD of some sort to confirm this and do the sufficient genetic research. Specimens required, other wise we would have many different bigfoot species out there.

[ZackicBrown]

This is a silver pike worth talking about
Caught at Lac La Martre. We catch quite a few here..
http://nwtfishing.com

[bang_on_sk]

I've seen blue pickeral in Ontario a number of times, there's a lake on Manitoulin Island that is famous for them. The only one I've caught elsewhere was in a lake I used to live on. It looked very similar to a regular pickeral, but it was blue where they're normally yellow.

I think it has something to do with their food supply, the creek that fed that lake had a lot of crayfish that had the same blue colour to them, and I bet the pickeral was chowing down on the crayfish.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Some of the pike we catch out of the Pembina river have a strong yellow tinge to them, possibly due to the Pembina river being a heavily tea stained color.