Almost all anglers first of all pay attention to the weight and size of the trophy caught, without wondering about the age of the fish, how to determine it and how the fish grows in general. In this article we will try to answer these questions.
The age of a fish is commonly referred to as the life cycle. For some, it is short, like pink salmon, which, having reached puberty at one and a half years, spawns and dies (and there are dwarf coral fish whose life cycle is just over 3 weeks), or very long, like some sturgeons and sharks. Their cycle can reach up to 150 years
Unlike many representatives of the flora, fish grow throughout their lives.
The growth of a fish is an increase in its size and mass. The growth rate depends on the type of fish, there are fast-growing ones and vice versa. The habitat also significantly affects growth: the availability of food, the composition of water, pressure from predatory fish, climatic conditions, anthropogenic impact and others. If the situation in the reservoir is favorable, then the fish can live to "old age" and die a natural death.
How fast does a pike grow
There are known cases of catching very large specimens of pike weighing 50 kg and 180 cm long. Its life expectancy is up to about 30 years. It grows differently depending on age. Usually 3-4 weeks after spawning, pike fry 3-4 cm in size appear from the eggs. If in the first year of life it reaches a length of 25-30 cm with a weight of up to 300 grams, in the second year - 25-45 cm weighing up to 1.5 kg. In the third year, it grows up to 60 cm and can reach a weight of just over 2 kg. A ten-year-old pike can weigh 10 kg with a length of 1 meter. Influence its growth and the above factors. In cold weather, especially in winter, pike growth slows down.
Her gluttony has a reason - she must "gobble up" 15-20 kg of feed in order to increase her weight by 1 kg. And it is very important what kind of food it is. The larger the predator, the larger the prey should be, otherwise, in pursuit of a trifle, the pike will spend more energy than it will receive from the prey.
Males reach maturity at 1-2 years, females at 2-3 years. The female is always larger than her male counterpart.
How much perch grows
The largest specimen of perch was caught half a meter long and weighing almost 6 kg. His age was 23 years. Perch grows very slowly. For the first year, its size is about 5 cm, at 6 years old - 20 cm. External factors greatly influence the growth rate. In a small reservoir with a small food supply, it grows more slowly, in large ones it grows faster, in the first year it can grow up to 12 cm. To gain weight of 1 kg, it must eat almost 5 kg of feed. At 2 years old, an average perch is 11 cm long and weighs 23 grams. By the age of 9 - 29 and 580, respectively. Stripes on the sides of the perch appear with a growth of 20 - 25mm. Predatory lifestyle usually begins in the second year. Adult females are always larger than males of the same year.
How much does a trout grow
Trout has many subspecies, the main ones in the country are brook and rainbow trout. Pied (or rainbow) trout in the first years of life grows quite quickly, with an average life cycle of 12 years, it reaches a weight of 12 kg. In the first year, her weight is about 25 grams. Maturity pied reaches 3-4 years. Rainbow trout, especially Canadian, grows even faster when bred in ponds, one-year-old individuals reach a weight of 125 grams by a year, and by one and a half they already have a marketable weight.
How much does a sturgeon grow
The size of the sturgeon is impressive. Its length can reach 6 meters and weigh more than 800 kg. Sturgeon grows very slowly and its maturation also occurs late. Depending on the subspecies, males become mature at the age of 5 to 18 years, females - from 8 and even up to 21 years. The largest subspecies of sturgeon is beluga or kaluga, at the age of 15 they can weigh a ton with a length of more than 4 meters, there were specimens under 2 tons with a height of 9 meters.
How much carp grows
This fish is fast growing. Under favorable conditions, the carp reaches a weight of more than 50 grams in the first year, in the second - 800, in the third - 1.2 kg. Its length in a year reaches 18 cm, in 5 - up to 51 cm. At 10 years old, carp can reach 70 cm and 7 kg. Life cycle maybe over 15 years old. Maturity of males occurs after 3 years, females - after 4.
How much does catfish grow
It is the largest freshwater fish. Cases of catching catfish weighing 400 kg are known. In the first 5-6 years of life, it belongs to fast-growing fish, then the growth rate slows down significantly. Only in the first month they grow up to 15 cm. By their first autumn, their weight reaches 600 grams. For the first five years, the catfish doubles its weight in a year, then the growth rate decreases. A 50-year-old catfish weighs approximately 120-130 kg, and individuals over 250 kg are at least 100 years old.
How to determine the age of a fish
There is a popular joke among anglers on this topic. It is necessary to determine the age of the fish by the eyes. The further they are from the tail, the older the fish. But in fact, determining the age of a trophy is not very difficult and accessible to most curious people. As with determining the age of a tree, annual rings are counted to determine the age of a fish.
They can be seen on scales, gill covers, otoliths, vertebrae, sections of the rays of the pectoral fins. The easiest way is by scales. It is necessary to take not deformed scales, but not along the lateral line of the fish, clean it and count annual rings using a magnifying glass or microscope. You can also determine whether the fish grew quickly or slowly in a given year. If the fish does not have scales or it is very small, then the count can be made by gill covers, vertebrae, etc. A prerequisite is surface treatment - it is necessary to dry, degrease, and sometimes lighten them.
What fish grows fast at home
It is best to breed fast-growing species. The most popular fish for breeding in ponds is the carp. Also bred crucians, cupids, silver carps, catfish, sturgeons of all kinds, pikes, whitefishes, trout, pike perches and others. Most of them grow quickly and many are unpretentious to habitat conditions. Popularity depends on growth rate, nutritional value and the effort expended to create an enabling environment.
Special farms are being created that are engaged in fish breeding and commercial fishing. There are farms that breed fish for organizing paid fishing, where fishing enthusiasts can amuse their souls in a pond, knowing for sure that there are fish in it. The rest depends on skill.
When breeding fish in a pond, the best results are shown by carp, which can gain weight up to 1 kg in a year, crucian carp - 300 grams. Cupid at the age of 1.5 years - up to 10 kg, but certain conditions must be observed for its breeding. Silver carp can grow up to 2 kg over the summer, whitefish - 400 grams.
We hope that the information presented in this article will be of interest not only to fishing enthusiasts, but also to everyone who loves nature.
Perhaps there is no other fish in the world about which so many fairy tales, sayings, fables, sayings and legends would be composed, since the pike is one of the most famous freshwater fish. It is distributed throughout the northern hemisphere of the Earth. It lives in almost all water bodies, and everywhere it is quite a lot. Pike is absent only in mountain rivers, in lakes freezing to the bottom and in some ponds, where the water periodically overheats. True, here you can sometimes meet pike fry. pike spawning in early spring but not all at the same time. Young pike are the first to spawn, followed by older fish, and the last to spawn are the most respectable, large individuals. Pike living in rivers and lakes spawn in different time. The river pike spawns last.
Pike start spawning at water temperature from +(1-4)°С to +(10-14)°С. Their spawning coincides with the spring migration of waterfowl, and sticky pike caviar is carried by birds from one reservoir to another. Sometimes squinting can be found in a remote forest swamp or in a deep puddle, where ducks, waders or snipe rested on the way to nesting sites. But here the pikes are not destined to live long: either they, completely hungry, will eat each other, or the puddle will dry up. In the best case, the squints will last until the first hard frosts, when all the swamp water turns into ice.
Fortunately, not every egg has such a sad fate. Quite a lot of pike caviar ends up in water bodies, where there is plenty of food, and there are no competitors, and, most importantly, fishermen do not bother. Under such conditions, in six months, a 20-30-cm pike grows from a three-millimeter egg, and after a year it already reaches a size of 40-50 cm. And it grows all its life, however, with age its growth rate slows down. From the age of five or six, the pike adds only 3-5 centimeters per year, but it noticeably increases in volume and becomes heavier.
How long a pike lives is not known for certain. It is believed that European pikes live up to 20-25 years, while reaching a size of 1-1.5 meters and a weight of 15-20 kg. And this is in Europe, where there is a spinner for every pike! What is there to say about the unknown Siberian rivers? And how can one not believe the stories of the natives about monsters eating swans, or about monsters dragging goats and calves that came to the watering hole into the abyss.
Good old Europe is also not silent about this. Who hasn't heard the story of Emperor Frederick II Barbarossa's pike? He personally ringed and released fish into the lake in 1230. And after two and a half centuries (!) She was caught again. White from old age, overgrown with algae, pike, with a length of either three or five meters, weighed either 150 or 280 kg!
It was a long time ago, and therefore the information that has come down to us is contradictory. Another European record holder is a pike from Lake Kaiserwag, which weighed 180 kilograms during its lifetime, long years surprised the curious with her almost four-meter skeleton, put on public display in the Mantheim Museum. But, unfortunately, the skeleton turned out to be fake. Some skillful merry fellow assembled it from the remains of almost forty large, but quite ordinary pikes. It's a pity! Every angler dreams of meeting something like this, and everyone has yet to catch the biggest trophy.
It is interesting that and North American Indians did not remain aloof from the folklore pike boom. Speaking, and magical, and evil, and wise pikes live in their legends. Like ours: everything is perfect, with minor specific variations and deviations. And with the size of the local pike, everything is in in perfect order: one and a half to three meters, two centners. Almost world standard. What is it for?
Lives in North America The masking pike is the closest relative of the common pike. It is larger and more enduring than our pike, grows faster and obviously lives longer. In 1660, the French explorer Pierre Espiritu Radisson witnessed the capture of a specimen 2 meters long and weighing 75 kilograms. Although no material evidence of that event remains, the information can be considered true, since even today fishermen come across maxinongs weighing 25-30 kg and even 40-45 kg.
Officially registered European records are more modest. In 1979, the "Giant Pike Cadastral Book" was published in England, in which all known cases of catching pike weighing more than 14 kg are scrupulously documented. The largest pike caught in the area former USSR, was caught in 1930 on Lake Ilmen. The fish weighed exactly 34 kilograms. This, of course, is not a two-meter hulk, which Tsar Boris Fedorovich "planted" a long time ago, but it is also impressive.
However, huge and just big pikes now a rarity. Where there are many anglers (and where are there few now?), the pike, with all its desire, will not live up to a record size. There are already a lot of pike cutlet lovers.
But not everywhere the attitude to the pike is so utilitarian. Norwegians, for example, however, like the Don Cossacks, do not like pike and even disdain to touch it. The British have long valued pike as an expensive delicacy. Exquisite pike dishes are also loved in other countries.
But not because of the delicious diet fillet there is no rest for the pike. People do not allow fish to grow to a record size, their indestructible hunting passion, the excitement of fighting, the desire to measure their strength with a worthy opponent. Pike is indeed an adversary anywhere: strong, swift and treacherous. 0 the strength and swiftness of the fish can be judged by the construction of its body. A sharp, elongated muzzle, a powerful muscular torpedo-shaped body, a wide caudal and dorsal fins carried far back - all this allows the pike to make lightning-fast throws.
Having fallen on the hook, the pike violently resists, rushes from side to side, sinks to the bottom and again rises to the surface, jumps out of the water, wriggles and shakes its head. It is difficult to keep even a three-four kilogram pike, and not every angler can do it. But how many pleasant experiences, how many soul-stirring minutes such a duel brings! And if a pike is caught, and even if a strong fish breaks loose and deservedly gains the desired freedom, the angler will still never forget all the vicissitudes of a wonderful duel. That is why anglers love to catch pike. That's why they appreciate her. And when it comes to angling pike - no one remains indifferent.
The pike is an omnivorous predator that eats not only any fish, including ruffs and its own juveniles, but also leeches, tadpoles, frogs, worms, etc. A relatively large pike is able to drag under water and swallow a duckling or other small waterfowl, a water rat. It happens that by the fall, pikes eat out everything alive and at least somewhat attractive in the lakes, and, hungry, are mistaken for water snails. They collect them clumsily, but with enviable tenacity, and during the day they fill their stomachs with heavy food so much that they cannot even swim. Often pike grabs prey a little less than its own "growth". She cannot swallow it right away, bite off a piece - too, so she has to digest food gradually. While the head of the victim is fermenting in the stomach, the tail sticks out of the toothy mouth. But the point here is not at all the notorious pike greed, but rather the arrangement of pike teeth.
In addition to the fangs, with which the predator grabs and kills the prey, in the sky, tongue and partly on the cheeks of the pike there are brush teeth that can, when bent, take a horizontal position with their points towards the pharynx. These sharp teeth-brushes are necessary for fish not only to hold prey, but also to facilitate swallowing. It turns out that in the pike mouth the victim can move only in one direction - towards the stomach. Obviously, having grabbed an exorbitantly large fish, the pike would gladly spit it out, but it cannot - the teeth interfere. So the glutton swims for several days in a row with his mouth open. It should be said that only young pikes make such mistakes. Adult individuals, apparently taught by their own bitter experience, prefer to eat less big fish. Pike differs from other fish in another feature associated with teeth. From time to time, old pike teeth fall out, and new ones grow in their place or nearby. Anglers say that when changing teeth, pikes are not caught because they cannot eat. But this is a wrong opinion. Firstly, the teeth of a pike do not fall out all at once, but gradually, so to speak, as needed. Secondly, not all pike teeth change at the same time. And thirdly, even if all the teeth of a pike fell out at once, it could still swallow fish, albeit not very large, but comparable in size to most artificial baits. In general, the change of teeth in pikes occurs constantly, continuously, but gradually.
Among pike living in Europe, anglers distinguish between two varieties: bottom (or river) and grass 
(or lake). shorter and more powerful than the lake. As a rule, a bottom pike with the same length is heavier than a grass pike, in which the body is more propulsive. In addition, grass is lighter river pike, its color is dominated by green tones. Ground pike is golden with occasional dark olive stripes or spots. But the color of the same pike is not always the same and constant, depending on habitat, color environment and illumination may vary. As a rule, young small pike are lighter and brighter than their older counterparts. And the fry of river and lake pike look exactly the same, and only over time, under the influence various conditions life, they take on a characteristic color and shape. The lake pike, once in the river, can turn into a river pike, and vice versa. Therefore, it is wrong to say that bottom pike and grass are two different types or subspecies. They are simply two forms (or two variants) of the same species.
Pikes don't like rapid flow and always prefer quiet, calm backwaters and bays. Herbs have no problems with the choice of habitats. And river pikes have to overcome the resistance of the flow all the time: they constantly move behind schools of fish, constantly looking for areas suitable for parking. Therefore, they are both more powerful and more enduring than their lake companions. But wherever pikes live, they hunt, as a rule, from an ambush.
The pike pursues its prey very rarely, usually it overtakes it with one instant throw. If the prey turned out to be small or if the predator missed (which happens not so rarely), she again returns to the ambush and patiently waits for an opportunity convenient for the next throw. River pikes often chase after food, grasses do this either during the period of intensive fattening, or when there is a shortage of food.
By nature, the pike is a homebody. In a chosen area, she can live her whole life, leaving for a short time and, if possible, not far away. The pike decides to leave his favorite pool or creek only when catastrophic changes in the usual environment occur.
Even breaking off the lure or breaking off the hook, the pike soon returns to the same place where it just almost said goodbye to life. Apparently, the bait stuck in the mouth of the pike does not particularly bother and does not really interfere. After some time, the hooks rust, break and are rejected by living flesh. Moreover, a hook stuck in the mouth does not teach a pike anything. She is unable to connect this "minor" trouble with the threat to her life. Another thing is when the physical parameters of the environment change. For example, when the water overheats or when its level drops sharply.
Pikes are ardent individualists. With early childhood squints try to stay away from each other, apparently for their own safety. With age, the selfish traits of the pike character only get worse. An adult fish, having determined a site for itself, jealously guards it and is not inferior to anyone without a fight. This behavior is characteristic of all predators, and the pike is no exception here. general rule. Basically, the size of pike lands depends on the food supply of the reservoir. If there is plenty of food, if the prey itself strives to fall into the mouth, ten cubic meters of water area will be enough for an average pike. When there is little food, disagreements and friction arise between the pikes, often ending in the death of one of the rivals. As a rule, the individual with the widest mouth wins. In general, a familiar picture.
In groups, pikes are united only by necessity, when absolutely necessary. The fact is that pikes are cold-loving fish. They feel best at water temperatures from +8° to +(1b-18)°C. Then they are most active. When the water warms up to a temperature of + 22-24 ° C, the pikes feel uneasy, and they move to cooler places: to the keys, springs, or to deep pits. Where there are few such places, and there are plenty of people who want to cool off, there are significant accumulations of fish of different ages. At the same time, all of them are not very active; they endure the close proximity of their relatives with exemplary tolerance. From time to time, one, then another, then several pikes at once go to refresh themselves, but after the hunt they return together to the cool jets. Summer flocks disintegrate either by autumn, or with prolonged cooling.
In some reservoirs, usually in large rivers and reservoirs, pikes flock in flocks in winter. But the fish gathered in schools compels them to do this. It makes no sense to swim in an empty pond, it is much more convenient to be near the food.
Pike (Esox Lucius) has the widest habitat, it is almost the entire northern hemisphere. In Europe, the pike is common, called European (northern pike) - the largest representative of the class. AT East Asia the smaller Amur pike lives. In North America, there are three more representatives of the class.
Appearance
The appearance of the pike is very remarkable, it cannot be confused with other fish. It has a long body of oval cross-section, a large head and powerful jaws. The mouth is very characteristic of a predator: long conical teeth on the lower and upper jaws, numerous small teeth bent inward on the palate. The upper bite is explained by the fact that the lower jaw is more powerful than the upper one and the teeth on it are larger. oral apparatus pike is perfectly adapted for capturing a large victim from below and holding it.
The eyes of a pike are medium in size, located on the head, from above. This fact determines the tactics of hunting: control of the situation at the surface and in the water column and an attack from below. The dorsal and anal fins of the pike are located far behind. Scales of medium size. The lateral line is well developed. In addition, the pike has additional sensory organs - channels located on the head and belonging to the same system.
The color of the pike is gray-green with dark oblique stripes and light yellow oval spots. In a large pike, the hind fins and tail are colored orange-black, in smaller ones they are yellow-black. Lake pikes have a more contrasting, darker color compared to their river counterparts. Wherein, color shades may vary from specimen to specimen within the same body of water.
Age
Usually the age of a pike is determined by annual rings on the scales. This technique is quite humane but, unfortunately, does not work when it comes to large pikes. To accurately determine the age, you can only dissect the head of the pike and examine its bones (ear). So during the study of the scales of large pike, it was found that the age of some of them was more than 30 years! Some scholars have disagreed with this figure.
In the United States, additional studies have been conducted using more advanced methods. As a result, it turned out that the maximum age of a pike is 24 years. On the other hand, Swedish biologists have managed to prove that pikes can live for more than 16 years. In any case, it can be argued that pike older than 15 years old is extremely rare, and even older than 20 years old, even more so.
In Southern Finland, it was found that pike weighing 7-8 kg, as a rule, are 12-14 years old. But this does not mean that a pike weighing 20 kg. actually quite old. Obviously, this pike had unique growth opportunities throughout its life: water temperature, abundant food resources. She grew much faster than her counterparts from the very beginning.
Pike size and weight
Huge pikes are always females. Males rarely reach a weight of more than 5 kg. To achieve such quality characteristics pike needs a lot of things: unhindered access to food and good conditions for growth at the beginning of its existence. Swedish scientists have collected extensive research material on pike, which showed that only 2% of females reach a weight of 5 kg. and more. For males, the statistics are sadder. Only 0.7% of them reach a weight of 2 kg. The numbers are highly representative. Information was collected in large areas with different external conditions.
The relationship between body length and weight is not obvious and varies by specimen. Thus, differences in weight are explained not only by the amount of food in the pike's stomach or the stage of development of the gender gland, but also by how fast the pike grew in the past. In addition, the pike has its own "personal" body type.
It is quite obvious that the growth rate of pike is the lower the further north you are. Research carried out in middle Europe have shown that the growth rate of pike will be maximum at a water temperature of 13-18 C. When the temperature rises to 20 C, the growth rate decreases. If the temperature exceeds the 20-degree barrier, pike growth stops altogether.
In addition to water temperature, pike weight and growth rate are significantly affected by food availability and food competition. In the same pond, one-year-old pike can be found, the weight of which varies greatly. However, European waters have a high potential for pike growth.
The Swedes conducted an experiment: fry were released into a reservoir where there were no other pikes. Five years later, as a result of the control catch, it turned out that the largest pike had a length of 105 cm and a weight of 7.4 kg.
The growing season for pike is very short. Growth begins immediately after spawning and ends in September. Although pikes feed in winter, their growth slows down sharply, and in northern regions stops altogether.
What is the legend about the pike ringed by the German Emperor Frederick II Barbarossa, which was accidentally caught 267 years later. According to currently unknown sources, the length of this hulk was 5.7 m, and the weight was 140 kg. In one of the German museums, the skeleton of this huge fish was shown for many years, but later it turned out that it was a skillful fake created by enterprising townspeople to attract tourists.
Another legend tells of a huge pike caught at the end of the 18th century in one of the royal ponds in the Moscow region. They found on it gold ring with a message from Tsar Boris Fedorovich Godunov. The ancient pike weighed more than 60 kg and reached a length of 2.5 meters.
Also in Soviet times, in the literature one could find reports of a huge pike caught in the Northern Dvina, whose weight exceeded 60 kg.
Unfortunately, all of the above facts do not have any evidence.
How old can a pike live
Based only on data verified by scientists, it is worth noting that the real age of a pike can reach 30-33 years. The mass of predatory fish in this case is about 40 kg, with a length of 180 cm.
On the Internet you can find information that the maximum age of a pike in wild nature does not exceed seven years, with a maximum weight of 16 kg. This information is fundamentally wrong and misleads readers. In the USA, quite serious studies have been carried out regarding the maximum age of the pike. A special progressive technique has been developed to reduce possible error to the minimum. As a result, it was possible to find out that the limiting age of local pikes rarely exceeds 24 years. Swedish ichthyologists managed to prove that among pikes there are quite often specimens over the age of 15 years. Scientists from Finland have found that, as a rule, a pike gains a weight of 7-8 kg by the age of 12-14 years.
Facts about catching giant pikes:
- In 1930, in Russia, the fact of the capture of a giant pike weighing 35 kg was recorded on Lake Ilmen.
- In the state of New York, a huge pike weighing 32 kg was caught on the St. Lawrence River.
- On Lake Ladoga and on the Dnieper, fishermen caught pike weighing 20-25 kg. Moreover, the capture of such a large pike in those places was not considered something unusual.
- In 2013, on one of the lakes of the Tyva Republic, the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin caught a pike weighing 21 kg.
And there are many similar facts, with the development information technologies their number is constantly growing.
How to determine the age of a caught pike
There are several scientific ways to determine the age of a pike, but the easiest and fastest way for the average angler is to check the size of a caught specimen against the data from the pike growth table. At the same time, it should be taken into account that, depending on the habitat conditions and the food base of the reservoir, the sizes of adults can differ significantly.
Usually, ichthyologists determine the age of a pike by annual rings on the scales. This technique is somewhat similar to determining the age of trees, but in this case it is not so accurate and “works” only for fairly young individuals.
With high precision it is possible to determine the pike age only in laboratory conditions, by dissecting its head and examining the ear bone of the fish.
Perhaps there is no other fish in the world about which so many fairy tales, sayings, fables, sayings and legends would be composed. And there is nothing surprising in this. Pike is one of the most famous freshwater predatory fish. It is distributed almost throughout the northern hemisphere. It lives in almost all water bodies, and everywhere its abundance is high. There is no pike only in mountain rivers, in ponds freezing to the bottom and in some reservoirs, the water of which periodically overheats. True, here you can sometimes meet pike fry.
The fact is that pike spawns in early spring, but not all at the same time. Young pike spawn first, followed by older fish, and the last to spawn are the most respectable, large individuals. Pikes living in rivers and lakes also spawn at different times. Usually spawning of river pike occurs last. In general, pikes spawn at water temperatures from 1-4 ° C to 10-14 ° C. Spawning just coincides with the spring migration of waterfowl, and sticky pike caviar is transferred by birds from one reservoir to another. Sometimes squints can be found in some forest swamp or in a deep puddle, where ducks, waders or snipe rested on the way to nesting sites.
But here the pikes are not destined to live long. Or, completely starving, they will eat each other, or the puddle will dry up, and if they are lucky, they will last at best until the first hard frosts, when all the swamp water turns into ice.
But not every egg stuck to duck feathers will face such a sad fate. A lot of pike caviar ends up in water bodies where there is plenty of food, and there are no competitors, and, most importantly, fishermen do not bother. Under such conditions, in six months, a 20-, 30-cm fish grows from a three-millimeter egg. A year later, the pike already reaches 40-50 cm. And it grows all its life, however, with age, its growth rate slows down. From the age of five or six, the pike adds only 3-7 cm per year, but it noticeably increases in volume and becomes heavier.
But how long a pike lives is unknown. It is believed that European pikes live up to 20-25 years, reaching a length of 1-1.5 m and a weight of 15-20 kg. And this is in Europe, where for every pike there is a spinning rod with a lure. What can we say about the unknown Siberian lakes! How can one not believe the stories of the natives about monsters eating swans, or about monsters dragging goats and calves that came to the watering hole into the abyss.
Good old Europe also did not keep silent about this. Who has not heard the story of the pike of Emperor Frederick II Barbarossa, who personally ringed and released the fish into the lake in 1230. After two and a half centuries (!) She was caught again. White from old age, overgrown with algae, pike, with a length of either 3 m or 5 m, weighed either 150 kg or 280 kg. It was a long time ago, and therefore the information that has come down to us is contradictory. Another European record holder - a pike from Lake Kaiserwag, which weighed 180 kg during its lifetime, for many years surprised the curious with its almost four-meter skeleton, which was put on public display in the Mantheim Museum.
But, to the great regret of lovers of all kinds of sensations, the skeleton turned out to be fake. Some skillful merry fellow assembled it from the remains of almost forty large, but quite ordinary pikes. It's a pity! Every angler dreams of meeting something like this, and after all, everyone has not caught the biggest trophy yet.
It is interesting that the North American Indians did not stay away from the folklore pike boom. Speaking, and magical, and evil, and wise pikes live in their legends. Everything is exactly the same as ours, with minor specific variations and deviations. And with the size of the local pikes, everything is in perfect order: three meters - one and a half to two centners. Almost world standard! What is it for?
The Muskinong pike lives in North America, the closest relative of the common pike. The maskinong is larger, more enduring than the pike, and it grows faster, and obviously lives longer. In 1660, the French explorer Pierre Espirito Radisson witnessed the capture of a specimen 2 m long and weighing 75 kg. Although no material evidence of that event remains, the information can be considered true. Even in our days there are masconongs weighing 25-30 kg and even 40-45 kg.
Officially registered European records are more modest. In 1979, the "Giant Pike Cadastral Book" was published in England, in which all known cases of catching pike weighing more than 14 kg are scrupulously documented. The largest pike caught in the territory of the former USSR was caught in 1930 from Lake Ilmen. The fish weighed exactly 34 kg. This, of course, is not a two-meter hulk, which Tsar Boris Fedorovich "planted" a long time ago, but it is also impressive.
However, now huge and even just large pikes are a rarity. Where there are many anglers (and where are there few now?), pike, with all its desire, will not live up to a record size. Although not everywhere the attitude towards the pike is so utilitarian. Norwegians, for example (however, like the Don Cossacks), do not like pike and even disdain to touch it. And among the British, pike meat has long been valued as an expensive delicacy.
Exquisite pike dishes are also loved in other countries. But not because of the delicious dietary meat there is no rest for the pike. People do not allow fish to grow to record sizes, their indestructible hunting passion, the excitement of fighting, the desire of anglers to measure their strength with a worthy rival.
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