© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 4-7: The finger-preserving way to land a pike, muskie, or pickerel.

      Northern pike: Water wolf

      The most popular member of the pike family is usually known simply as the pike, but it’s really a northern pike, and it’s a native of the Great Lakes and its cooler tributaries. It prefers cooler water and can be found in any habitat that provides a steady source of it.

      Pike are clearly designed to attack and devour (see the color section). All forms of baitfish and gamefish, birds, muskrats, frogs, snakes, snails, leeches, and anything else it finds within striking distance can find its way into a northern pike’s belly.

      You are liable to find pike in weedy shallows (especially if the water’s cool) where they wait to ambush their prey. As stealthy as a lion in wait, or as swift as a springing panther, pike stalk and pursue their prey. For this reason, anglers pursue pike by using livebait (usually a good-sized sucker) or by casting a variety of lures designed to entice an angry strike. They’ll also take flies and popping bugs. Anglers desire pike more for sport than for food — they are too bony for many cooks to mess with. Northern pike reach weights into the lower 40-pound range, but anything larger than 20 pounds is an ornery trophy.

      Chain pickerel: Pike junior

Though smaller than the pike and the muskie, the pickerel is as pugnacious and predatory as its larger cousins. When fishing a shallow bass pond on a day when nothing is happening, look for the arrowhead-shaped wake of a feeding pickerel. Whether the pickerel is cruising or sprinting from its lair in a weed bed, I think you will agree that it is exciting to watch a well-equipped predator going about its deadly work. More common in the eastern and southern states, pickerel thrive where their larger pike cousins are absent. They seldom weigh 10 pounds but grow quickly and offer great sport. Figure 4-8 illustrates a chain pickerel, whose dark green side markings appear to line up like the links in a chain.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 4-8: The chain pickerel, shown here, looks similar to a miniature pike.

Temperate Bass

      Members of this family of fish, including striped bass, white bass, and their cross, the wiper, or hybrid striped bass, are taking the country by storm. Extremely popular with anglers wherever they are found, these bass strike hard, fight well, and taste great.

      

Things get a bit confusing here. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are in the sunfish family, not the bass family. And one member of the temperate bass family — the striped bass — exists in both salt- and freshwater (meaning it’s anadromous). And two members of the bass family — the striped bass and the white bass — can be crossed to form a hybrid called a hybrid striped bass or wiper. What anglers really need to know is that all the species in this family make wonderful sportfish.

      Striped bass: Strong enough for saltwater, happy in freshwater

Striped bass, or stripers as they are commonly called, exist along both coasts and delight saltwater anglers casting from shore. But stripers enter rivers to spawn, and they have been successfully introduced into landlocked reservoirs throughout the country. These landlocked stripers are the true freshwater striped bass, and they challenge anglers everywhere with their size and fighting ability. Stripers can weigh more than 80 pounds, and can test even the strongest tackle. They feed primarily on fish, and anglers target them using livebaits or lures, either cast or trolled, often with planer boards presenting baits off to the side of the boat. Not often found near shore, stripers are often caught by anglers fishing open water from boats. Stripers are silver with unbroken black stripes running from head to tail, as shown in the color section.

      White bass: Little fighters

White bass look like miniature stripers (as you can see in Figure 4-9), and a 3 to 4 pounder is considered a trophy. Similar to their larger cousins, white bass consume fish, along with crustaceans and insects. White bass may be small, but they’re ferocious, especially when pursuing a school of baitfish. It’s not uncommon to see baitfish exploding from the surface when a school of white bass move in to feed. They can be found in rivers and large streams, but they prefer large lakes with relatively clear water.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 4-9: Not as big as striped bass, white bass are still great sport.

      Wipers: A bit of both

This popular hybrid shown in Figure 4-10 favors big-water reservoirs and the tailraces found below their dams. Often stocked by state DNR agencies, wipers school and chase shad and other baitfish along rocky points and through open expanses of water. Anglers target them by casting lures that imitate popular forage fish, and wipers tend to be more aggressive than stripers. Because they school, catching one may lead to quickly catching another. Like striped bass, they tend to remain on the move, however.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 4-10: Hybrid or wiper bass, a cross between a white bass and a striped bass, are often stocked in reservoirs.

Carp

There are approximately 200 species in the minnow family, and most of them are what you’d expect: They’re, well, minnows. One exception deserves mention in this book because it offers anglers great sport: the common carp. Carp were abundant in Europe (Aristotle mentioned them in 350 B.C.), but their American story began in 1876 when they were imported from Germany. Carp spread rapidly and now exist almost everywhere. They prefer warm water streams, rivers, and lakes, where they feed on everything from insects and crustaceans to mollusks. Anglers take them with natural baits like corn, grasshoppers, and worms, and fly fishermen can take them on flies. They grow large — more than 70 pounds — and fight like crazy when hooked. Figure 4-11 shows a carp, which really looks like an overgrown goldfish.

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