Colonial forms are formed by animals belonging to a phylum. What is a colonial organism? "Colonial Organisms" in books

2 Pacific salmon Sockeye salmon, together with five species - masu salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, chum salmon and chinook salmon, belongs to the genus Oncorhynchys. The range of representatives of this genus is limited to the northern part Pacific Ocean. The southern border of the range is on the island of Taiwan in Asia and in California in America. Some Pacific salmon, such as chum salmon, enter the rivers of the Chukchi Sea to breed. Only masu salmon enters the rivers of the Asian coast, while all other species breed in freshwater bodies of both continents. Feeding areas in the sea to some extent gravitate towards the continents, which own the spawning reservoirs of local stocks. Most of the local herds of all species winter and fatten within the subarctic region of the northern Pacific. Sexually mature males and females of the same age different types have noticeable differences in body size and weight. Studies of structural features have revealed the existence of a series: masu salmon - sockeye salmon - pink salmon - coho salmon - chum salmon - chinook salmon, in which there is a tendency to increase the mass of cartilage and shelter the brain from exposure external environment. The differences between species are most obvious when salmon have their nuptial plumage, since at this time a special body shape and coloration are acquired. Pacific salmon breed in rivers and lakes, using sandy and pebble soils with a well-defined yield groundwater or under-channel flow. Sima breeds in small tributaries and upper reaches of rivers. Chum salmon and pink salmon in such rivers occupy areas downstream for spawning. Pink salmon quite often breed in the intertidal zone of the mouths of small rivers with well-defined sandy and pebbly soil. Chum salmon often migrate to the middle sections of large rivers. Sockeye salmon breeds in lakes and rivers flowing into lakes, on the one hand, and in the upper reaches of large rivers, on the other. Coho salmon spawn in rivers, their tributaries, springs, very often in shallow areas with low water flow rates. At the same time, Chinook salmon choose most importantly relatively deep-water sections of rivers with fast current. Chinook salmon use specific sections of rivers for spawning grounds - before the riffles with sufficient depth and fast current. In the upper reaches of the Kamchatka River, Chinook salmon breed in shallower areas with slower flows. To visualize the selectivity of Pacific salmon in terms of breeding sites, let us turn to spawning reservoirs where several species occur simultaneously. Thus, in the basin of the Dalnyaya River (Kamchatka), all sockeye salmon breed in Dalny Lake, while coho salmon occupy areas adjacent to the source of this river from the lake. In the Wood River Basin (Alaska), we observed a mass spawning of pink salmon in the main channel of the Wood River connecting Lake Aleknagik to the sea in late August and early September. Sockeye salmon spawn in rivers flowing into lakes Aleknagik and Nerka. occurred at the end of July, while on lake spawning grounds - in the second half of August. The spawning grounds of Chinook salmon were located on a mountain-type river - the Agulovak River, connecting these two lakes. Chum salmon bred in places in the lower reaches of the rivers flowing into these lakes, the upper reaches of which were occupied by sockeye salmon. Marriott notes an occasional occurrence of chum salmon for the Peak River (Nerka Lake). We were able to observe 9 pairs of female chum salmon and male sockeye salmon breeding together. At the same time, students at the University of Washington discovered a mature hybrid of sockeye salmon and chum salmon. Thus, in cases where breeding sites various types Pacific salmon are in the neighborhood and the spawning time coincides; natural hybridization is not excluded, which we noted for sockeye salmon and chum salmon from Lake Nerka, Lake Azabachye, as well as in other places by many authors. The number of each species of Pacific salmon depends on the conditions for reproduction. The abundance of lakes has led to high numbers of sockeye salmon in the Wood, Kvichek, Naknek and Ugashikk river basins in Alaska; Skeena and Fraser in Canada, Kamchatka and Ozernaya on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The short, shallow rivers of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands are characterized by an abundance of pink salmon and chum salmon. The abundance of mountain rivers in the states of Washington and Oregon, as well as in British Columbia ensured high numbers of coho and chinook salmon. In Asia, the most abundant species are chum salmon and pink salmon, and in North America - sockeye salmon, chinook salmon and coho salmon. Sima is a small species. Pacific salmon are monocyclic and die soon after the end of spawning; the lifespan of different salmon species can vary significantly. These differences are enhanced by the unequal duration of the freshwater life period. Hence, there are species with a complex age structure and a sharply simplified one. If 21 age groups are known for sockeye salmon, and 14 for chinook salmon, then pink salmon is represented by almost one age group, since its freshwater and marine periods of life are simultaneously maximally reduced. Chum salmon are distinguished by the fact that they spend a long time at sea and are therefore represented by six age groups. The third pair of species, salmon and coho salmon, have taken the path of reducing the duration of their stay in the sea, while the freshwater period of life sometimes remains very long. Despite the fact that 10 age groups have been found in coho salmon, only two of them are dominant, and the majority of coho salmon live in the sea for one year. Sim has several a large share constitute age groups that spend two years at sea. Pacific salmon make long migrations in both fresh water oh, so at sea. In connection with the development of active Japanese salmon fishing on the high seas, in the last twenty years, research into the marine period of life has expanded widely, including determining whether fish in the ocean belong to certain local stocks. As a result, it was possible to identify such important feeding areas as the Bering and Okhotsk Seas, the Aleutian region and the Gulf of Alaska in the North Pacific Ocean. Salmon winter in the Sea of Japan, the Kuril region of the Aleutian Pacific Ocean in the southern Gulf of Alaska, and the Oregon-Vancouver region. The longest migrations are obviously carried out by the Amur autumn chum salmon. Using tagging, it was established that she, as well as chum salmon from the Hokkaido and Sakhalin islands, feed in the Aleutian region of the Pacific Ocean (Adak Island) and migrate from there to spawn. The marine life period of sockeye salmon, chum salmon and pink salmon is the most well studied. There is comparatively less information about the marine period of chinook and coho salmon, and there is only sporadic data on the distribution of masu salmon. Larvae, fry and juveniles of Pacific salmon feed on bottom and planktonic organisms, as well as aerial insects. Typically, fish from river stocks, such as chum salmon, sockeye salmon, and coho salmon, feed on drifted benthos and aerial insects. In lakes, planktonic organisms occupy a significant proportion of the diet. Large juveniles at the age of 2 and 3 years switch to feeding on amphipods, on the one hand, and juveniles and small fish, on the other. In the ocean, the main diet of salmon consists of large planktonic crustaceans, such as euphasia and hypereids, as well as fry and juvenile fish, small squid, etc. Detailed description of smelt and methods of catching it

Silver bream is a peaceful fish that bears a close resemblance to bream. Quite densely inhabits the basins of the Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian seas. Very common in lakes and rivers. It is quite difficult to catch large-sized silver bream and most often fishermen’s catches include specimens weighing about 50-150 grams. It is rare, but it is possible to catch fish weighing about 1 kg.

Habitats

White bream is a relatively small fish among all the variety of things that amateurs dream of catching. fishing. However, the excitement of the process of catching it gives great emotions.

Connoisseurs in the art of fishing note that they honed their true, genuine skill in catching silver bream.

The habitats of the silver bream represent a fairly wide range - these are rivers, lakes and small ponds. Fans of river fishing concentrate their attention on areas with sandy and clay bottoms. The admixture of silt also attracts silver bream. The greatest chance of getting effective fishing occurs when fishing in a lake or flat part of a river. A large catch can await in deep backwaters and on open areas reservoirs.

Smaller individuals of the silver bream gather in flocks closer to the shore in areas of thickets. The presence of silver bream reveals an abundance of air bubbles that rise to the surface of the water.

This fish is caught throughout the year. Depending on the season, schools of small silver bream become larger (in autumn) or smaller (in summer); it is also worth considering that during the autumn cold period the fish tries to live in pits; they are attracted to feeding places during spring floods.

The active season for fishing for silver bream in the reservoirs of the Moscow region begins in mid-August, when large schools of fish accumulate in deep areas (from 5 to 9 meters), and at night the silver bream rises to the surface of the water.

Traditionally, amateur fishermen cannot distinguish a silver bream from a white bream. The visual features of the silver bream are noticeable upon careful examination of the dorsal fin (fewer rays); it is also distinguished by large scales with a silvery color. The red tint of the pectoral and abdominal fins, as well as the gray color of the unpaired fins, can help identify the silver bream.

Spawning

The beginning of spawning usually depends on the thermal state of the water (12-20°). This period usually occurs in early May. Slow-onset warming may delay spawning until June. The silver bream acquires visual changes during spawning. Males, for example, develop a pearly rash on the fish's bodies. Females are different orange tint fins and bright silver scales.

In the overwhelming majority of females, spawning occurs in batches; however, there are specimens that spawn at once. The spawning of the silver bream, which lives in lakes, drives it to the shore, while river fish, on the contrary, leaves its channel in search of a place like a backwater.

After spawning, all visual features disappear.

What to fish with

The silver bream is one of the most voracious fish; during fishing you have to use about 20 liters of bait. If you want to save money, you can feed the fish using a feeder, then you will only need 4-5 liters of feed. Yes, and you can even catch silver bream on a feeder. The presence of large heavy particles in the bait is mandatory.

It is best to use steamed cereal grains or sunflower cake as the basis for bait; add some animal baits, such as bloodworms or maggots. She is very well attracted by pea porridge and boiled pearl barley with the addition of honey. Store-bought bait also works great: bream, carp or crucian carp. It is best to start feeding the fishing spot in advance, a couple of days before the start of fishing.

A distinct quality of the silver bream from its fellows is that it quickly swallows the bait, rather than tugging at it for a long time. Anything is suitable as bait, starting from the classic earthworm and ending with pieces of the fish itself.

In spring, silver bream is very well caught on dragonflies, beetles and midges. But, as the experience of many fishermen shows, maggot remains the best bait. The fish are excellently caught with a jig, and the shape and size have a slight effect on the bite. Often, in a baited area, fish begin to be caught immediately.

Fishing calendar

The fish is quite active all year round, so creating a fishing calendar for the silver bream is not particularly difficult. I suggest you familiarize yourself with it; if you click on the image, it will enlarge. And below you can see the blue bream biting forecast for the whole year, divided by month, for your convenience.

January

In January, the silver bream bites very weakly and is quite unstable. But if there is a thaw in your region this month, then catching silver bream will not be difficult.

February

In February, silver bream, like all fish, is rather inactive. But you can see her biting, although very rarely.

March

In the first half of March: flocks of silver bream leave their wintering grounds, but only small fish can be seen in the catch.
In the second half of March: the bite increases sharply in mid-March and the fish begin to come out to feed in the shallows.

April

In the first half of April: you can run into a large school of fish that grabs absolutely everything. It is best to fish from the bottom.
In the second half of April: probably the most promising and successful time for fishing. The catches delight the fishermen with big fish.

May

In the first half of May: the fish are preparing for spawning and bite very well, especially on animal baits.
In the second half of May: the bite practically stops due to the start of spawning of the silver bream.

June

In the first half of June: there is no stable bite, since the silver bream is actively spawning, and it is almost impossible to predict its behavior during spawning.
In the second half of June: spawning stops and the fish bite becomes stable. Immediately after the completion of spawning, the silver bream begins to actively peck.

July

It is quite hot in July, so it is worth looking for fish in the depths. She bites quite actively, but only early in the morning and late in the evening. During the heat of the day, the silver bream practically does not feed.

August

In the first half of August: in good weather, the bite of silver bream can only be envied; the probability of catching large fish is quite high.
In the second half of August: the bite is still quite good and the fish are already beginning to form large schools, which can be found for some great fishing.

September

There will no longer be an active bite, but there are still quite a lot of fish in the deep holes and they bite steadily, albeit sluggishly.

October

Short bursts of strong gusts of white bream bite in October occur quite often. As the water temperature drops, the fish completely move into deep places.

November

With the onset of autumn cold weather, the bite decreases significantly and the capture of silver bream becomes a rare, isolated occurrence.

December

In the first half of December: catching fish is very rare, the bite is sluggish and inconsistent.
In the second half of December: the silver bream goes to winter and the bite practically stops.

The body of the fish is quite high and strongly compressed on the sides. The scales are quite thick and dense. The head size is relatively small. Mouth is not large size, located at the bottom of the head, retractable. Large eyes. The fin on the back is high, and the anal fin is quite long.

The back is painted bluish-gray, and the belly and sides are silver. The dorsal and caudal fins are gray, and the ventral fins are slightly yellowish; in some individuals they may have a red tint; this is the main difference between the silver bream and the bream.

But there are other differences, for example, the scales - in the silver bream they are much larger, especially in the area of the dorsal fin and on the back. Behind the back of the head of the silver bream you can see a small groove that is free of scales.

Photos of silver bream

Gustera - very beautiful fish, her photos are pleasant to look at and some people do this for hours. I hope that you will be interested in watching them, even if not for an hour, but at least you can take a look with one eye. Get to the point. To enlarge, just click on the photo.

Video about catching silver bream

An interesting video about catching silver bream on the Oka River with float tackle. Leading programs and Nizhny Novgorod They are happy to talk about the intricacies of preparing gear, choosing a fishing spot, and the most interesting thing is proper feeding.

Quite an entertaining video about catching silver bream in the current. I’ll tell you right away for the impatient, rewind 5 minutes of the video, because a long lyrical introduction can discourage you from watching further. Well, the big plus is that the presenter is an ordinary amateur, not a professional, and tells everything in simple language.

Well, where would we be without a video about catching silver bream on a feeder? Episode 32 about fishing from the series Fish with us. Quite an interesting and instructive video that reveals all the secrets and tricks of choosing and installing feeder equipment.

Classification

Smelt is a semi-anadromous marine fish of the salmon family. In total, there are six genera in the smelt family, three of which are found in our waters:

smelt, which is divided into European and Asian;
smallmouth smelt;
capelin

They feed on plankton, fish eggs, small crustaceans, mollusks and various benthos.

European

European smelt is an anadromous fish, which, however, has lake populations. They settled in closed reservoirs when they were unable to escape along rivers to the sea due to climatic or other natural anomalies. The habitat of smelt is the basins of the Baltic and North Seas, as well as lakes in northern Europe.

The European smelt is small in size. The length of the fish rarely exceeds one and a half ten centimeters with a body weight of 20-40 grams.

Lake freshwater forms, such as Ladoga smelt or Onega smelt, are often called smelt. They, unlike their marine relatives, are much smaller and are only about six centimeters in length. The river variety is now found even in the Volga basin.

The Baltic smelt lives for about ten years, and at 2-4 years it already becomes sexually mature; the smelt is capable of reproduction in the second year of its life.

The fish spends the entire summer far out to sea, and only comes to the shore and river mouths early spring before spawning. European smelt spawn immediately after the ice melts at a water temperature of 4-9 degrees Celsius. To spawn, schools of fish rise upstream into rivers, the Neva, for example. There have been cases when, when spawning in the Elbe, smelt traveled a distance of 100 kilometers from the mouth.

Asian

Asian toothy smelt, another name for it is “American”, is common in the seas of the basin Arctic Ocean. In Russia, its distribution area is huge - from the White Sea east along the entire northern tip of the country and down the Pacific coast to Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of Japan.

Asian smelt is larger in size: up to 34 centimeters in length and weighing 200-300 grams. Its main difference from the European species is strong teeth.

The Asian smelt reaches sexual maturity at the age of three, when its body length exceeds 16 centimeters, and its total lifespan is limited to 10-11 years. This species spawns, depending on its habitat, from April to June.

Smallmouth

Smallmouth smelt are found on Far East our country from the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk to the Japanese islands. Most often it can be caught off the coast of Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.

The size of the smallmouth fish is also not particularly large. Typically, individuals reach 25 centimeters in length and weigh 150 grams. Smallmouth smelt spawn three times during their ten-year life, starting at age two.

Unlike other species of smelt, the habitat of the smallmouth species is the open sea; it does not even spawn by entering rivers, but spawns in the coastal surf zone, using kelp thickets or other sea grass for this purpose.

This purely marine fish also belongs to the smelt family. Its habitat is the seas above the Arctic Circle, the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. In recreational fishing, capelin has not found its niche, but in commercial terms, this sister of smelt is of very great importance.

In size it is not far from other species; capelin is also small. With an average size of 20-25 centimeters, the fish weigh 40-50 grams.

Capelin spawn at the age of two, males at three years, approaching the coasts of the northern seas. Most of the fish die during spawning, this is facilitated by strong surf winds that throw the carcasses ashore.

In addition, predators from different classes of animals are not averse to profiting from schools of capelin:

fish - cod;
birds - seagulls;
mammals - seals and whales.

When to catch

Since smelt moves away from the shores in summer and lives far out to sea, catching it during the season open water possible only with nets and other traps. But this is not our method, we are for pure amateur fishing, so we will only consider pure fishing.

Smelt may bite throughout the winter, but best time the time to hunt for it comes with the approach of spring. Typically, smelt fishing begins in late February - early March.

Where to fish

Smelt fishing is carried out year after year in the same places. They joke that the easiest way to find a school of smelt is by looking at the crowd of fishermen eager to catch it.

At the end of the deep winter, fish preparing for the April spawning approach desalinated bays, enter river mouths and similar places. Search fishing can also give results, taking into account the fact that a cucumber-smelling predator should be looked for in all fishing horizons.

What to catch

Fishing for smelt is carried out mainly by two types of gear:

tyrant;
with a makhalka.

Smelt gear is very specific, and therefore we will dwell on each of them in detail and explain how to make them with your own hands and what to equip them with.

Petty tyrant

Tyrants for smelt are the most common tackle for catching fish that smell like cucumber. All fishermen make such a fishing rod with their own hands and equip it with different baits.

Samodur consists of the following elements:

winter fishing rod with reel or reel;
legs-stands;
bright nod;
working line with a diameter of 0.18-0.22 millimeters;
undergrowth - monofilament 2-3 meters long and 0.14-0.18 millimeters thick;
leashes 0.10-0.14 mm thick
bait.

The undergrowth is chosen so long that it is enough to equip the garland with the required number of leashes, usually from two to five, with an interval between them of 15 to 35 centimeters.

The following baits are used when fishing for smelt:

jigs;
hooks with baits;
flies;
thin light feather spinners;
heavy spoon as the main load.

A spinner for smelt is usually made in the form of a very thin petal; you need to make it so that it moves from the slightest excitement under water or a light touch on the fishing rod. The multi-colored planes of the spoon, with their changing iridescence, are a great attraction for smelt in early spring.

Usually animals or artificial baits are placed on the tyrant’s bait:

bloodworm;
pieces of meat;
cutting fish, often the smelt itself;
cut strips from rubber balloons or contraceptives (a really working option);
colored threads and wools;
phosphorescent stickers.

Samodur is a passive tackle for smelt. Fishing tactics consist of drilling large number holes at a distance of a meter or two from each other and installation of a large number of fishing rods, sometimes up to ten pieces per angler.

Catching smelt with this gear involves visual control of the rod guards and timely hooking. In addition, you need to go through the holes from time to time and slightly play along with the tackle.

At the beginning of fishing, fishing rods are set up to work in different horizons. When the bites begin, the gear is switched to fishing in the layer of water where the fish are biting today.

Mahalka

If catching smelt with a tyrant is passive fishing, and is carried out during the period of activity of the fish, then the makhalka is an active tackle, it is used when the fish bites sluggishly.

In fact, the makhalka is a smelt spoon. The general construction of the tackle is similar to that of a tyrant, only it uses not a garland of baits, but one jig or spinner. The same baits are used for bait as for tyrants.

Fishing is carried out using jig fishing or trolling, and from a distance it seems that they are simply waving a fishing rod, hence the name of the tackle. Unlike the tyrant, the makhalka tackle is more mobile and can quickly find the horizon where the cucumber fish is located today.

Pike

Due to its size, widespread distribution and fame as an exceptionally brave and agile predator, it occupies one of the first (if not the first) places as an object of amateur fishing. In terms of breadth of distribution, pike occupies one of the first places: it is found in the basins of the Baltic, Black, Azov, Caspian, Aral Seas, the northwestern part of the Bering Sea and in the Arctic Ocean basin. It can be found almost everywhere: in rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs, in desalinated areas of the seas, even in swamps and peat quarries. There are closed reservoirs in which, apart from pike, there are no other fish. Juveniles here feed on benthos, and adults feed on juveniles. True, in such places the pike is runaway and small. This fish is not found only in mountain rivers - cold, stormy, rapids. She avoids strong currents and takes refuge from them in creeks and backwaters. Pike is very unpretentious - it can live where many fish leave. Large pike prefer to stay in deep water, young pike prefer to stay in shallow water, and the rest prefer to stay in the middle layers of water.

The entire structure of the pike's body - a long, slab-like body, a large and flat "crocodile" head with long jaws, a high dorsal fin pushed far towards the tail - speaks of its exceptional agility. Large, high-set eyes allow her to see perfectly both around her and above her.

The color of pike is variable and depends on the color environment, in particular the soil of a reservoir. In lakes with a peaty bottom it is darker, in rivers with a sandy-clay bottom it is lighter. Puppy pups under one year of age are always dark green, and this coloring serves purely protective purposes. The color of a pike also depends on its age. The older she gets, the darker she gets. The pike uses the camouflage coloration of its body so skillfully that you need to have very good eyesight and great skill to see it, hiding in the grass almost at your very feet.

She is apparently very curious and, in case of danger, hides at the very last moment, and does so with lightning speed.

Pike is not a schooling fish. Both in rivers and in lakes and reservoirs, it stays in places with a moderate current, not very deep, grassy, snags, near the banks. The small ones constantly live in the reeds and grass. And only the very large ones prefer deep sections of the river under steep yars, holes and whirlpools.

Pike is a completely sedentary fish and only in the spring, before spawning, does it rise up the river, and by winter it goes into the pools.

It never spawns in river beds. To do this, it always goes out either into streams and ditches, or into hollows filled with spring floods. It happened that spawning pike were found even in the ditches of busy highways at an incredible distance from the river.

Unlike most other fish, pike always spawns in small groups - four or five, of which there is usually only one female, and much larger than the males accompanying her. At this time, she loses her usual caution, going out into such shallow places that often the water does not even cover her ridge.

Nature has established the most severe breeding conditions for pike. A huge amount of eggs spawned by her and hatchlings from the eggs die in those drying up floodplain puddles and hollows where the eggs were spawned by the female during the flood. A lot of eggs also die from frosts, which are not uncommon so early in spring. Moreover, the pike itself, especially small ones, does not disdain its own offspring and destroys them along with other fish. If not for all this, then, with its colossal fertility, the pike would inevitably crowd out all the other fish living in the same reservoirs.

Pike eggs develop relatively quickly. In the sun and in shallow water, hatching from the eggs begins within a week or a week and a half. At first, the fry stay in the smallest places and feed mainly on insects, worms and small invertebrates.

By the end of June, drawn by eternal instinct, young squinting squirrels, already reaching the size of a matchstick, leave their temporary shelter and rush to the river. This migration of them is invariably timed to coincide with rain, which fills with water those dry streams and hollows that for a short time connect floodplain swamps and puddles with the river. Thus, the annual “harvest” of pike depends to a very large extent on whether the beginning of summer is dry or rainy.

Once in the river, squirrels very soon become predators, begin to grow very quickly and by the fall they grow to the size of a pencil.

There is an opinion that the pike, as a predator, causes great harm fisheries. This view is incorrect and is based on an incorrect assessment of the importance of any predator in nature in general and pike in particular, on exaggerated concepts of the number of fish it destroys. Pike, attacking mainly sick, wounded and deformed fish that cannot produce full-fledged offspring, acts as a biological ameliorator, promoting natural selection and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. In addition, pike eat mainly low-value fish, thanks to the reduction in the number of which the food supply of valuable fish improves. Pike is a regulator of the fish population: by eating small things of little value, sick and weak fish, it thereby enables larger and healthier fish to grow faster and produce healthier offspring.

Ichthyologists who have studied the fish productivity of some artificial reservoirs also claim that pike’s diet is dominated by low-value fish. The same results are obtained from studies of pike feeding in rivers (for example, in the Lena).

The fame of pike as an extremely voracious creature is greatly exaggerated. True, she eats to her heart's content, but digests this food very slowly over a long time. This partly explains the frequency of its pecking.

Pike is very indiscriminate in food and with a little tolerance it can be called omnivorous. However, its main food remains fish, and live fish. She takes the dead one reluctantly and only in exceptional cases, when she is very hungry.

Pike is an unimportant swimmer, but its throw is swift, so it attacks from ambush. If there are no thickets of vegetation in the reservoir, the banks are bare, and the bottom is flat, she is forced to wander in search of prey, and when she finds it, she pursues it. More often this happens in those reservoirs from which the pike cannot escape: say, downstream of the river there is a dam, and above there is a section of pike perch, its worst enemy.

The main factor determining the size of a pike herd is the degree of favorable conditions for the survival of young fish. This especially applies to artificial reservoirs, where the water level is constantly changing and the laid eggs often die when the level decreases.

Pike spawns much earlier than other fish - immediately after ice drift, first in rivers, then in lakes and other closed reservoirs. If spring is delayed, the pike goes to the spawning ground under the ice: sometimes spawning occurs when the ice has not yet passed. Spawning lasts more than a month. Small individuals lay their eggs first, and as the water warms up, large ones do so. Pike spawns in shallow places, among old vegetation, spawning from 17.5 to 215 thousand eggs.

A week or two after spawning, which in the middle zone happens in mid-May, the spring feeding of pike begins. In the spring it takes well throughout the day, but in the summer - only in the mornings and evenings. In mild cloudy weather, the pike bite is always better than in clear weather.

There is an opinion that in summer pike generally catch extremely poorly, and there is even a saying: “June has come, don’t care about the fish.” This is not true. The pike continues to feed, but the fact is that by this time aquatic vegetation is growing wildly in the reservoirs and the pike moves into it, becoming inaccessible to some fishing methods. But if you mow down windows in this vegetation and put vents in them, then very soon you can be convinced of the fallacy of the above opinion.

From the end of August, the autumn feeding of pike, which is characteristic of its stability, begins and continues until the freeze-up. At this time, mainly medium and large pike are caught.

In most cases, pike attacks prey from an ambush and extremely rarely misses. She swallows small fish at random and immediately returns to the place chosen for the ambush. And she swallows larger fish like this: she usually grabs them across, walks a few meters and stops, sometimes for a minute, and sometimes for three or even five minutes - it depends on how full the pike is, the size of the prey and its vitality. At this time, she tightly squeezes the prey and holds it in her mouth until it kills. Then he begins to turn her head towards him and swallows her. Having missed, it usually does not repeat the attack, but returns to ambush to wait for another victim.

You can observe how, before an attack, the pike slowly, with the help of only its pectoral fins, turns towards the victim. At the same time, its tail is sharply bent in the direction of the turn. The next moment there is a powerful and sharp turn of the tail in the opposite direction, giving the fish an amazing speed. And where she was a moment ago, only a cloud of troubled water remains, while the victim, glistening, is already trembling in her teeth.

The pike most often grabs its prey crosswise, but always swallows it from the head, turning it in its mouth with the movement of its jaws, and does this on the move, without stopping in place after the throw. This habit, in fact, is the basis for catching it with self-catching gear - mugs and girders.

Read more about making a mug for pike fishing with your own hands in the material follow the link.

It seems that for no other fish have so many fishing methods been invented as for pike. It is caught with a spinning rod, a line, summer and winter baits, circles, a float, a running bottom, a float rod, etc.

During the open water season, i.e. from early spring until freeze-up, there are periods when pike are caught well in one way and poorly or not at all caught in others. This, on the one hand, is due to the nature of the reservoir, and on the other hand, the location of the pike in a given period.

If a spinning rod, a float rod, or a fishing rod, due to its great maneuverability, are successfully used throughout the season and on any body of water, then for circles, tracks and other gear dammed rivers, lakes and reservoirs, the season usually begins no earlier than mid-June.

In spring, you should look for pike on the rifts or directly next to them. The best are those that are overgrown with burdock, reeds, mud from the bottom, or littered with large stones. Pike resolutely avoids clean sandy riffles. During this period, catching it in deep pools is also not very successful, but you should not bypass the entrances and exits from them. The pike stays in the mentioned places until autumn, when it begins to move to quieter and deeper areas.

The predatory fish pike belongs to the small family of Salmoniform fish. In our Russian rivers this is one of the most large fish.

What does a pike look like?

If you've ever seen common pike, then you will remember that this is a large fish up to 1 m long (some individuals reach 1.5 m), weighing quite a lot (about 35 kg depending on size). However, such big pike Nowadays it is rare to find it anywhere. The body of pikes is long and streamlined, the head is slightly flattened vertically and elongated sagittally. The mouth contains many sharp teeth, and they cover not only the jaws, but also the palate, tongue, and even the inner surface of the gill covers.

As pikes wear out, their teeth are replaced. But this does not happen to all the teeth at once, but gradually, so in the pike’s mouth you can find both small and large mature and worn-out old teeth.

On the body there are paired fins (pectoral and ventral), as well as unpaired ones. Pike scales are very small, the color of its body is gray-green with small spotted stripes. This spotting is more visible on the fins. Some species of pike even have red fins.

Sexual dimorphism in pikes is manifested only in size - females are noticeably larger than males, but the coloring of fish of both sexes is the same

In addition, the body size of females is much larger than that of males. This difference is called sexual dimorphism.

Where do pikes live?

Pike are found in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. The main number of them are inhabitants of the fresh waters of Eurasia and North America. Lakes and river inlets became the favorite habitats of these fish. You will not see pike either in turbulent bodies of water or in a stagnant, slow-flowing pond.

In fact, they are very sensitive to the lack of oxygen in the water. Therefore in winter season pike often die in icy waters.

What do pikes eat?

In general, the life of pike is passive and sedentary. She often lies in thickets coastal plants, camouflaging among them and waiting for prey. Then, with a sharp throw, he grabs the “lunch” and safely hides again, freezing motionless.

The diet of the pike is determined by chance. In general, she feasts on small fish and other representatives of the ichthyofauna: toads, frogs, ducklings. But her list of favorite dishes includes crucian carp, smelt, perch, roach, ruff, and bream. Moreover, large pikes are cannibals and are not averse to feasting on smaller relatives.

In the Canadian mountains there are lakes that are inhabited only by pike, and so, there large individuals eat their own offspring. You ask, what should babies eat? They usually eat aquatic insects and their larvae.

By the way, about the offspring

Pike spawning occurs in early spring, immediately after the ice melts. The ideal depth for spawning can be from 0.5 to 1 m in places with sparse algae thickets. When spawning, the female lays eggs, and several males, following her, water the eggs with milk. One pike can sweep from 20 to 200 thousand small eggs.

They attach themselves to plants, and then fall off and lie on the bottom of the reservoir. It takes 8-14 days for the fry to develop. At first, their diet includes small crustaceans, later - fry of other fish. Puberty of pikes occurs at 2-4 years.