I usually don’t pay attention to fish but when Bob Machesney emailed me that northern pike are spawning at Moraine State Park I went there on Tuesday to see(*).

Northern pike (Esox lucius) are big predatory fish, 16-22 inches long, with a holarctic range.  When Europeans came to North America they found a fish they knew from home. Britons named it “pike” because it resembles the long thin poles historically used as weapons.

Like other predators northern pike lie in wait, camouflaged and motionless, until their prey comes close. They then burst out of cover, grab the animal, and swallow it whole.  Most of the time they eat fish but will also eat other animals in the water including birds, small mammals, snakes, frogs and even their own young.

Northern pike are loners except during the breeding season when the males and females hang out together and splash a lot in shallow weedy places.  Spawning is triggered by water temperature and runs full tilt when the water reaches 50 degrees F.  The female is larger than the males who swim close by her side as she broadcasts 3,000 to 120,000 sticky eggs over the vegetation.  Her eggs hatch unattended in 10 to 12 days.  (Read more about their life cycle here.)

This short GoPro movie from Ontario shows what spawning looks like above the water and what the fish looks like underwater.

And this video from the Norfolk Broads of England shows pike spawning and explains what they’re doing.  (I went birding at the Norfolk Broads last summer.)

Lake Arthur warmed up early this year at Moraine State Park so the fish were busy when I saw them on 27 February.

In the days ahead, look for northern pike spawning in the weedy shallows of western Pennsylvania.  You’ll find them in Lake Erie, in the Allegheny and Ohio watersheds, and in lakes stocked by the PA Fish and Boat Commission.

(photo by Luc Viatour / https://Lucnix.be via Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original. videos by Chris Bro and Fishtrack on YouTube)

(*) Bob Machesney saw them spawning next to the Muddy Creek railroad grade on 26 Feb 2018.  It’s a 0.8 mile walk from Burton Road.  If you go, wear your muck boots.