Pike habitats

Before you go fishing, you should find out the habitats of a particular inhabitant of the reservoir. Where pike lives is known to experienced spinners, but young anglers will not always be able to find a promising place on their own. We will try to figure out which places in the reservoir the predator prefers and where it is best to look for it together.

Who is a pike, a description of her appearance

Pike belongs to predatory fish species; even a child can recognize it among other inhabitants of the reservoir. The characteristic features of the predator are:

• An oblong body, the color of which can range from gray to light green with various shades.
• A massive jaw with many teeth, which is why the pike is called a freshwater shark.
• The length of an adult individual can reach one and a half meters, while such a giant will weigh at least 35 kg.

Pike rarely grows to such a large size, individuals of 6-8 kg are already considered huge in most regions. In most cases, many manage to catch pike from 1,5 kg or more. Smaller individuals are usually released into the wild.

The pike breeds in early spring by spawning; this stage of life occurs at the end of March-beginning of April. But the weather often makes its own adjustments, the pike will be able to spawn only after the reservoirs in which it lives open up.

A few days before spawning, the body of the pike is covered with a specific mucus. With its help, the fish attaches to stones, snags, aquatic plants and spawns, after a couple of days the mucus comes off, the pike continues to live a normal life.

A feature of the life of a pike is its solitude. Adult individuals never stray into flocks, they live, hunt, spawn alone. An exception will be small groups of tentacles, up to 12 cm in size. Usually, a group consists of 3-5 fish of the same size, which hunt and move around the pond together. As soon as they grow up a little, they will immediately disperse one by one to different parts of the water area.

Pike feeds on a variety of living creatures, small fry start with daphnia, then move on to fry of other fish, and then bring variety to their diet. Larger pike can eat their counterparts, which are smaller than their size, if the food supply in the reservoir is very poor. With a sufficient diversity of representatives of the ichthyofauna, pike will give preference to fry of other fish species.

Habitat

The common pike is found in all freshwater bodies of the northern hemisphere of the globe. The predator is easy to find in lakes, rivers, ponds of Eurasia, as well as on the mainland of North America. Pike habitats are very simple in terms of characteristics:

• sandy bottom;
• aquatic vegetation;
• vegetation along the coastline;
• pits and edges, depth differences;
• snags, flooded trees.

Fast mountain rivers with cold water and a rocky bottom as a permanent residence for pike are not suitable. Such reservoirs will not allow a toothy predator to quietly sit in an ambush waiting for prey.

We found out in which reservoirs to look for a toothy predator, now let’s talk about promising places. They will vary in different areas.

River

Pike on the river in anticipation of prey are in ambush, for this they use a variety of aquatic plants, as well as snags, lonely boulders and other heaps near the coastline, near pits and rifts. Pike fish often chooses for itself such places on the river:

• On a steep coastline with sufficient depths.
• Immediately behind the dam, there will be enough food supply for the predator, and you won’t have to hide too much.
• At the junction of two or more rivers, it is often at the confluence that a deep hole is formed, which becomes a haven for many species of fish that serve as food for predators.
• Fallen trees, aquatic vegetation very well mask the pike from others. It is these places that the predator chooses for parking and waiting for a potential victim.

Spinners also catch other areas in the river, because often a trophy pike can stand in a very unpredictable place. Atmospheric pressure and a sharp change in weather conditions can force a predator to migrate across a reservoir.

Lakes

The pike in the lake chooses for itself approximately the same areas as on the river, it is preferable for it to wait for a smaller fish while in ambush. But lakes do not always have rifts, edges, snags, so most often pike in here prefer vegetation, it can stand near reeds, sedges, in a water lily or pondweed.

The predator enters the shallows only in spring, when the water at depth is not yet warmed up. The rest of the time, she prefers to stay at sufficient depths or in vegetation, where coolness lasts for a long time.

Features of lake and river pikes

Pike in different reservoirs have certain differences, lake and river ones will differ visually and even very much. The main differences can be represented in the form of the following table:

But in all other respects, the predators will be absolutely identical. Often they react when fishing for the same bait, a catchy wobbler will work equally well both in the river and in still water.

Wintering and summer sites

Whatever the habitat of the pike, in the heat and in winter, it chooses for itself more suitable places with the appropriate conditions. It should be understood that the pike does not hibernate either in winter or in summer, it only becomes less active.

To find a toothy predator in a pond, you need to know such subtleties depending on the season:

• in winter, pike in cloudy weather at constant pressure and moderate frost stops at wintering pits. It is here that she will find everything she needs to survive. Small fish periodically go out to feed, thereby getting caught by pike. On the shallows, the toothy predator does not come out at all on reservoirs under the ice.
• Summer parking places of the predator are determined by weather conditions; in hot weather, it is worth looking for pike near deep holes, in grass and coastal thickets. It is in these places that the temperature will be lower than in the middle of any body of water.

It is impossible to say exactly where the pike is found in spring and autumn; during the zhora period, it can migrate in search of food or stand in one place.

It is not so difficult to recognize pike habitats, the main thing is to know the seasonal habits and preferences, then it will not be difficult at all to find a predator.