[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Freaky Fana Friday, where every Friday we take a little time and explore some of the freaks of nature from around the planet.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cherish so deeply.

[SPEAKER_01]: So please, jump aboard and let's explore the wilds together.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Jay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to this peaceful podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: This nice beautiful Friday.

[SPEAKER_02]: It feels good to be back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it does.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's good to be alive with the weather being colder and our ice fish and trip with the Patron people coming up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I have a special freaky phone a Friday for everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I've said this a few times.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my favorite fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's surely you're talking about the both and wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't say my favorite fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said one of my favorite.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is top.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: 20.

[SPEAKER_02]: We already covered the both in on three key for my episode one episode one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is I no fire sound there's episode two.

[SPEAKER_02]: The mighty both in though is kicked us off kicked off the show with a fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's one of the backgrounds in fishing amphibians and they have a helps.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have a striking higher percentage of free people on a Friday than striking like a like a with fishing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's a fishing term.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't just be a dumb.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't care.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were going to talk about Northern Pike.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, the Northern Pike.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there a Southern Pike?

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I'm always wondered that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, no.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or is there no Southern Pike?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just Pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll come back around to Pike, the term Pike, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because Pike has a European name, well, I can do it now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Northern Pike is the animal we're going to talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll answer your question really quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, Pike is a European, so there are Pike in Europe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pike are native to the entire Northern Hemisphere, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: the pike family is the socks which we'll talk about here in a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, now, technically, Northern Pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are two species in Europe.

[SPEAKER_01]: One is the giant pike, which is now officially declared extinct, but still might exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which they were like six or seven feet long.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a musky.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were bigger than musky.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were probably the biggest living e-sock of the last, you know, thousand years or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and now there are, they've done to some generic studies in the pike that still exists.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they, they think they like, right out like we talked about with blue whales.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just got so low in numbers that we're breathing with other species, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the same species, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But different close, very like cousins.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was actually cousins in the species terms.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, uh, [SPEAKER_01]: So while technically Northern Pike do inhabit like Russia and Sweden and Canada, there are biologists that argue that those are separate species because they can no longer make aerogenetics.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, they can't make it back to where the others are.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying that we're not talking when we talk about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not individuals.

[SPEAKER_01]: The genetics can't spread across back to the other side of the population.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you look at the Mississippi drainage for example, you know, it's thousands of miles long [SPEAKER_01]: that the there's there's species that live in the headwars live all the way down in Louisiana that they're considered the same species because the genetics can make it all the way up here up in all the way down gotcha [SPEAKER_01]: uh...

northern pipe can't because i can't and there's a saltwater transformation so it's an argument it didn't really matter for a lot of people but okay interesting after our quote-unquote northern pipe in Sweden and there are northern pipe in Canada in Ohio and you know and some fishery biologists will tell you that they are the same species and others will tell you they are different okay to me it i i could go either way i could see both arguments [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, did be their pores.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a difference for what?

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll come back to that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know what those are.

[SPEAKER_01]: You do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Northern Pike, since I was a little kid, I've had a fascination with these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to catch one forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first time I ever went, I just wish it was 11.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lady from our church sponsored us.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were at a pretty poor childhood.

[SPEAKER_01]: My parents write very very hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had a good life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying anything like that, but you know money was tight Well family sponsors from church and they got it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all like ice fishing here.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the whole beginning seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: So dad Took us up to Grandpa Bob's cabin before we re-owned it [SPEAKER_02]: That sounds like something first anglers or future anglers of any and like Ohio would deal.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are they're great.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, uh, which I just talked to talk to talk about doing nice fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, I'll be quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not buying.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I wanted to catch one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we went up there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all I want to catch.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I had northern pipe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had these.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had these the word and I still have the three wooden tables with the yellow spools.

[SPEAKER_01]: I still use them.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are 20 years old now.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know what you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got him off a Amazon for $10.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a three of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're 20.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never changed the line on them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They still catch fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dang.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, that's why I would actually.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's over 20 years old now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it shouldn't work like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, this, I, I had four and I'm down to three.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, in the spool, just unspoken.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the screw came out and fished up the spool.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, he took it with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's, and then I caught one, I sat on the ice for like three days, and we didn't catch anything because it's horrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we didn't know what we were doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I finally caught one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these guys hold a special place in my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're also called Michigan Alligators.

[SPEAKER_01]: I could see that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I have some quotes from naturalists who have more study in pikes.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first quote comes from 1884.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are mere machines for the assimilation of other organisms.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's from George Brown, good, Nigel historian of useful aquatic animals, okay, of 1884.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the next quote is from Maryn Macauza, of Wisconsin Bureau of Fish Remanagement.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, with the exception of homo sapiens, [SPEAKER_01]: There is perhaps no other species, so deliberate or so dedicated to gluttony as Isah Lukasah, the northern pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a vicious feeder that finds most creatures, even when squirrels and sandpipers fare game.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they got big sharp needle teeth and they eat everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, anything that's like shite shite shiny and bright.

[SPEAKER_02]: I combined it And they go what they just I've had him hit our cameras.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, it just they'll eat each other.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen Pike hanging out of Pike.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, me too.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've caught Pike with Pike in their bellies So yeah, it's just as funny that naturals that study them are like these are the pure glutton.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, these are true apex predators [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about some facts about them first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, they pretty much are very, very adaptive.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, to answer your southern and northern Pike thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Pike was a British term for toothy fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Trout Pike and carp.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when they got to America, they're used to be called yellow pike and blue pike, which are wall eyes and then a blue wall eye.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because they had teeth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, even though there are zander, which are a cousin of [SPEAKER_02]: So basically Pike Mint they had teeth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's Pike Trout Bass, which we're sea bass, and that's why there's two different families of bass today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, it's because they kind of look similar when Europeans got to North America, called them Bass.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha So there's the sunfish is why we call them it's that's why scientific terms like large amounts of all mouth spotted bass are all sunfish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's bunch of pig roll red fin pickle grass pickle and so like the chain in the red fin like the chains go all the way south like I've caught chains in Florida I've caught chains in Arkansas.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and they get big not as big as pike, but they get pretty big so that'd be your southern pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: That would be yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we to answer your question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: They look very, very similar.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're patterns are a little different.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, they're adaptable to many freshwater environments.

[SPEAKER_01]: They can be found on rivers, deep water ecosystems, open giant lakes, small, like slupons and everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike are extremely adaptable.

[SPEAKER_01]: North America in Euro Asia, though from Russia, to Sweden, to North America, like I said earlier, it's just been on where you want to split hairs on a species.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: They live a pretty long time for a fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: They grow really quick, but they live to be between 12 and 15.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty old for a fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: uh fish don't there's not a lot of fish that kind of exist in that middle ground hmmm they're either live fast and hard or you live a long time yeah and so these guys are kind of on the lower end of fish but for how fast they grow they do live a pretty decent time okay uh there's some reports that i'm living to be in their 20s and those are your giant so there's trophy animals and those are the hardest ones to catch too because they're smart yeah uh they get up to 60 inches long [SPEAKER_02]: That's insane.

[SPEAKER_01]: They can weigh up to 55 pounds.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's wild.

[SPEAKER_02]: The biggest one I ever, I think caught was, or seeing caught was like 36.

[SPEAKER_01]: My biggest is 38 that I've caught myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Biggest I've ever seen caught was in the 40s.

[SPEAKER_01]: Low 40s, like 42, 43.

[SPEAKER_01]: So wild.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen pictures of 52s.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's so crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So anything, anything over, depending on where you're at, anything over like 33 is considered a trophy for most anglers.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to win.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a nice fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want one in the 40s.

[SPEAKER_01]: That would be amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a nice fish form enough that eventually I'll run into one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I've hooked two that are probably in the 40s, and they just, they know to get off.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're smart.

[SPEAKER_01]: uh...

but you have to think about pounds of their all green and colored models and spotted uh...

they can and a little bit of variation in their coloring but northern pike or what's difference between pike and muskie but colors do you remember so yeah the north and pike i believe has like the dark skin with the white spots so dark background [SPEAKER_01]: light spots.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then muskies the reverse the light background with dark spots stripes, but yeah, but spots that can be a little spotty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's mostly like kind of stripes for muskies, but yeah, it's just yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you don't know the difference, you wouldn't be able to tell a difference.

[SPEAKER_02]: See in the two fifths.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do not behave at all.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, but yeah, the act very different because muskies or musk a lunge is the name, but muskies was at Clocliel term musk.

[SPEAKER_01]: Muscle lunges the name of American [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, but yeah, first time I ever seen because we we always fish for pike growing up my whole life So I always knew it those words were first time I seen a musky.

[SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was a pike on steroids But after I got you know a little more familiar and you look at the finer details like those Very different.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, once you kind of know because I of horses and donkeys [SPEAKER_01]: Oh gosh, yeah, I guess if you're just driving behind you, see him in a pasture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, same shape.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, true.

[SPEAKER_01]: Same shape.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you really start looking at him, like, very different.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what do they eat?

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, the answer to that is everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've found turtles in muskrats and ducks and pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: And uh, there's several people have been attacked by pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most time when that happens, it's like you already mentioned you're wearing jewelry.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they bite the jewelry and then they realize that they're attached to something bigger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Biker famous for having bigger eyes in their mouth.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I see what you're saying.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and they've got never I've been around in a lot of water with a lot of pike.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've never had an alter altercation with that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've had a paddle bit by a pike really.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't want to get bit by one, but I've also never had the fear of them either.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not scared of pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I wouldn't wear jewelry by him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, so we already mentioned Musky.

[SPEAKER_01]: A young person that died in the early Lake Eerie from a Musky attack.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow, I could get in bit and slit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've led the death.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because they're teeth are razor sharp, razor sharp, especially on the sides and then the ones in the front are all like little needles.

[SPEAKER_01]: Predators, mostly other pike humans and sometimes birds and otters.

[SPEAKER_01]: Depending on their size, you know, it's really ranges.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we're talking about baby or, you know, young pike, baby pike, everything, lead them is a small, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But once they're big, big adults, it's really just people and maybe otters.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think other Pike, maybe, be about the only thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And must be when they're like 50, something.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that bag, okay, okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: One time, here's a good story.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: We got share of fish and stories with our mouth fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: We were in this little bag called Nellie's Bay.

[SPEAKER_02]: The only way you can get to is up in Canada.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have to like drag your boat into it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we always found good fish in there, like that was always our spot.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we were fishing back in there one time for, uh, it was like three days in a row.

[SPEAKER_02]: We were, I mean, we were pulling a pike left and right, and each one me pull out had this huge gouge out of the side of it, just as big, like, bite mark, big bite mark one after the next.

[SPEAKER_02]: And some of these fish were like 30 something inches.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a big bite still on the side of them is nuts.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we were just wondering, you know, like, I wonder what something's in there's a monster in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Something's going after these fish, something.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then finally, that's when I caught my first musky.

[SPEAKER_02]: I caught a musky back in there.

[SPEAKER_02]: We don't know if that's what did it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Probably was.

[SPEAKER_01]: That are a boven.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: No fins are famous from moving chunks out of other animals.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was chunks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because they're what we've talked about, straight in Maxilla and the Chronicle teeth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: When they'll just hold into the shake, and there'll be a chunk of whatever, [SPEAKER_01]: So if there's a monster one of them back there, too, probably musky and both and hate each other, you fight on site, and maybe not.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if there's anything that could be, I guess I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they call curl a lot.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a big female, our big female, both and just hate less.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's Northern Pike or getting beat up.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Northern Pike or our cold water species, uh, where we're at in Ohio is about the for this south they go to traditionally.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, St.

Mary's is traditionally in Ohio like they're the last stronghold of Northern Pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've caught them there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So great.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, is it great Lake St.

Mary's or something or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so they they only function in cold water regions.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are fish water predators.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if they get too warm, they just don't exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's where you start seeing Pickerel take over.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like grass picker all the tiny that like a big one's like a foot long.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but then chain picker all and even run from Pickerel get fairly large.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, they can't like I already said they can't get really, really big, so unlike musky, they are considered to be very, very less intelligent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Muskie are known for being very smart.

[SPEAKER_01]: Northern Pike have a pretty small brain mass.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bear to their body size in their eyes size.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you kind of look, we talked about behaviors.

[SPEAKER_01]: You really kind of see the differences.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're muskie are much more think about some before they strike.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll, they'll completely be on a little pike will get everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had pike that I've released and they went right around a bit and other again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they do have a sister order.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pike related to the salmon order, but while the ladder is, you know, the Pike is the drag racer and the salmon is more like the long distance runner gotcha.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, but yeah, so they are eat their first freak.

[SPEAKER_01]: You find a fact they are esacophones are esacs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, they ever heard me talk about on the other show.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just call me socks because it's the esaciday is the family.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: uh...

which roughly translates to like ecosystem kings uh...

pipe pickroll and musky wherever they end up they generally are considered the ecosystem king they're very few North American or you know and fish any fish for that matter they can kind of knock them off that pedestal depending on if they enter but wetlands it like always you know both in [SPEAKER_01]: another competitor, but that fight can go either way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then there are several other fish, but this is why I was talking about like large mouth bass or never, to be an apex brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are supposed to be on top.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just don't function the same way whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very few pike make it to a dollhood and with very, like, uh, but yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they're from a small order.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're only contains two living families.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have a sister ordered the cell moniforms or salmon like fish, the most salmon like fish of these being the salmon, obviously, but then like white fish are also in that which don't look like as much salmon they look like big menos.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, the pikes are members of the Esacite family, they're found cold waters in northern hemisphere, unlike their highly migratory salmon cousins, these fish tend to stick around lurking the weed beds before they daughter or if it kills something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm out of breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: The American Muskie is being the largest by weight, the northern part being the longest by length.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about world records.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but yeah, and then just because they're smaller didn't mean their last fears.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are ambush predators.

[SPEAKER_01]: These guys are perfect lay in a weight predators.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are very curious if you watch them on some of the cameras underwater.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll come and look at stuff, but they're perfectly camouflaged for laying in the bottom of the weed beds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's quickly shooting out.

[SPEAKER_01]: They can hit burst of speed of up to 10 to 12 miles an hour pretty fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which is very fast for upon fish, essentially.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not talking about open water fish, you know, these guys most of your friend and much more shallower waters than some of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've caught him in 80 or 90 foot of water and like Michigan salmon fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're they're out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll end up anywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's cylindrical bodies.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you need to look at the fin placement, being most of the door sold.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are in on their tail fin being where they really far back on the body.

[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of makes one large tail fin.

[SPEAKER_02]: Gotcha.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: and so that's a torpedo shape.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pretty powerful for short distances.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: If they're going too fast for too long, they start having trouble being stable.

[SPEAKER_01]: They start burning up more and more fuel.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just, you know, they can't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they're like a burst predator.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've already said another freaking fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, they are highly adaptable, whether that's different pond conditions, different tannic levels, different water levels, different food sources, don't think that there's a real hard on them as temperature, because they're O2 requirement, so they and ponds in the south.

[SPEAKER_01]: They really start struggling.

[SPEAKER_01]: not saying they can't they end up some they had a pretty far south like they can any pond in Ohio or anybody water in a hop probably can have them the northern Ohio river has them like they can end up a lot of places but once you start getting far enough south of some emergency they just can't keep up yeah make sense uh so this strategy you know they're diet they switch they yearling and fishing frogs two turtles to merge to mammals you know they did not care [SPEAKER_01]: If they were to run into them like short ads and oh yeah, yeah, I've I've cut them open and had Yeah, called ads and in Michigan and stuff like no, though you mean bugs [SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, they're not afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we tell people this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I use really big baits form.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I've also caught them on panfish chicks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, we have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they they do not stray away from any food source.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Midges, which are an aquatic insect.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've had them full of Midges.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, which are what trout like trout or famous for being midgeaters or tiny.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, trout will eat hundreds of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when your cousins and we're then Pike will too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, but yeah, they're found at almost every type of freshwater cold system.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's from everything from deep lake streams, rivers, muddy ponds.

[SPEAKER_01]: They can tolerate a range of oxygen.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really just that temperature that really is a struggle for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, there are very few bigger freshwater predators in most of the North American pikes are the northern pikes range.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they're mostly top dog.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so there's really not much not a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, in us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, but I'm talking it just.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're famous for their fight as soon as the so excuse me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, they are aggressive fish, especially when feeding large individuals will often lay into smaller ones, both in defending their territories and an acts of cannibalism, sometimes they just bite other pike just to get them away.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you'll see the look young like 22 inch pike with just giant slices in them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, as soon as the ratio of predator prey reaches two to one, a scarcity of food drive turns the species into cannibals.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they are a self-regulating species no matter what anybody tells you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a big drive in a lot of places where like we got to kill these pikes.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can get our walleye back.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now the pike will do it themselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: They will.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as soon as they like, as soon as they start getting a little hungry, they will eat each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Young Pike are very vulnerable.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're having their kills stolen by older members.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about this a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're running temp ups and stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: You little pike will come in, bite the food, kill it, and then throw away really quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're only defensive to mouth and they're worried that there are big ones around.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Gotcha.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they don't want to be sitting there trying to eat something and damn get you right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll kill it and drop it in some away and see if another pipe comes out to steal their food.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they'll come back out and eat it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pretty smart.

[SPEAKER_01]: Must you do that, too?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's another free evil in effect for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It may surprise you.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are not venomous.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, that surprised me just because did you know they did you think they were venomous?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's there's common rumors and most of the northern pikes range that they are venomous.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huh.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this comes from their seemingly excessive bleeding of people experience when they're bitten or cut by pike.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay, gotcha.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now we're getting into the freaky fauna part.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but this is caused by an anticoagulant in their saliva.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not venom, but they do have an anticoagulant enzyme.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so that's, there's you're not imagining it if you get cut by a pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that you are bleeding like it won't stop.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But people were like, they are their venomous.

[SPEAKER_01]: They get infected like they inject you with stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huh.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are not venomous.

[SPEAKER_01]: It appears we've tied the basis, you know, but there actually has been tons of research done on this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because people were so convinced that they did have some kind of venom.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not, yeah, I know they don't have venom, but I know they're, they're really mucusy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's their skin.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Their skin's really like, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a big, not rag, like when they're, when they're really like, I don't know, when like, let's say you pull, you hook them and you pull them in here and they're flopped around your net and you get their hook out by the time you grab them the pick them out, yeah, that's just a big wet.

[SPEAKER_02]: Newcasts coded fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're a main system and they smell, that's why they're not freaking you on a fact.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, really?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they have.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they do have a unique smell.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's different than like small mouth or it is the musk, a fat head Minos, one of their favorite prey sources, musk you do it too, but these guys, they can sneak up on prey fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: They can't smell them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They smell like they smell like bait.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they don't smell like predators.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it makes sense.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, they used to be a delicacy and I still think they are delicious, uh, but they're everything from They were like very, very like high-end food.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were also used for caviar.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know that.

[SPEAKER_01]: People with eaten their eggs.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't like to take the females when they're full of eggs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, but people do eat their eggs.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're going to take a female for eggs, you probably should eat their eggs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they have billions of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I wonder why it's not considered like a delicacy or anything anymore.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I guess I'll talk about this really fast.

[SPEAKER_02]: If anyone's ever fish for pike or are you playing on doing it or playing on eating them?

[SPEAKER_02]: When you fill a pike, basically they got these bones that run up their sides.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they're called Y bones.

[SPEAKER_02]: At least that's the term I'm [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, my bones is correct.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a part of their spinal ribcage system and it comes down and it's basically this is big wide that goes through the meat and it's really small, like thicker than hair, but, you know, not too much thicker, I guess, but it's a fine crunchy bone, but it gets in the meat and it's kind of difficult to fill out if you don't know what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that's why most people maybe stick or stay away from pike or stray away from [SPEAKER_02]: No one wants bones in their food, and these are hard to get out.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what most people do is they cook them, and then they pull the bones out after, or if you know the technique to play them out, you can't play them out.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not hard to play out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, but if you don't know, I agree.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if you don't say that, if you're new to like, you're used to just trimming walleye or bass.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, these guys have extra.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I just flam like that and then I just cut two flays out of that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you split that play in half.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's what my dad does.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the easiest way.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are people that carve it carve it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's not for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's it's more time consuming.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there's another way.

[SPEAKER_01]: The pulling.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, another well even another way.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so my dad will make him.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll We're a certain minutes on for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, this is not long free.

[SPEAKER_02]: You find it, but you know, it's a fish near and dear to our heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do love these guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we eat them every year.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's part of our [SPEAKER_02]: it's part of our routine I guess I don't know like my family but my dad started doing this so we had a bunch of extra like pike in the freezer and we ended up having like extra bringing home because normally we fish pike bass and you know the common guys you know for this for northern U.S.

for North America but a pickling pike so pickled fish now it sounds [SPEAKER_02]: particularly a big fish eater if it tastes like fish and I don't like eating it, but the pike can pass we normally fish for so fresh and clean and good they don't taste like fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you take pickle, you take pike and you flame out and you don't have to cut the white bones out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just make it one big fillet and then cut that fillet into little chunks and you can look it up online like fish pickling fish recipes and stuff, but my dad makes bread and butter and dill.

[SPEAKER_02]: And uh, but what that does in that process, it dissolves all those bones, um, so you're you can flam leave them right in there and it dissolves them like they're not even there.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're never there at all and it tastes so good and it's not mushy like uh, you imagine like I've had pickled like potted like pickled not pickled but like potted meat or jarred meat, we ever had that um like jarred beef or deer it almost comes out like a roast beef like mushy consistency okay like completely cooked out roast beef and it's [SPEAKER_02]: that's what most but pickled fish not at all it's like a nice chewy piece of meat is good night i don't like pickles me either and it's great so if anyone i guess catches pike or eats them regularly and hasn't had tried that i encourage you to look it up and give it to go yourself so [SPEAKER_01]: uh, unlike a lot of our free foreign Fridays, these guys are actually very abundant.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and they were struggling in some parts of the range, uh, like all freshwater fish in North America during the Industrial Revolution, the waterways were heavily impacted, and they had a dramatic decline.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they were overfished.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, but then they have bounce back and most of their range.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's very, like Ohio Indian, there are parts of the southern part of their range.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, where they're not very abundant again yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but every pond in Michigan has a bike.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, every pond in Canada has a bike.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every, you know, every pond in Minnesota, every lake, every river, everyone has a bike.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, and we've done a good job for conservation, like limiting them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so they are protected in most of their range for breeding.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the size ring truck, I can talk about Michigan or how it doesn't have anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't know how it's rules on them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just don't have a lot of recreational phishing form, but they get when you're breeding before they can even be harvested in Michigan.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, by size.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, and most there are likes where there is no size limit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Basically basically you're saying you can't keep them and less there are certain Link.

[SPEAKER_02]: They got to be up to a certain link before you can keep them and then up there too big You're not supposed to keep those either or you're limited to like one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a trophy law and the most of Michigan Yeah, it's like you're allowed one trophy fish a year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which is fair.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah But yeah, so you got anything to add for Northern Pike [SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned their mandibular pores.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you because that was just a fact of thought my head This is the longest freaking fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've ever done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, one of them, probably I don't think we've ever had any over half hour.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, I hope you guys enjoyed this fish talk I'm in due to the pores.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's sense reports that they have on the underside of their jaw They act anywhere from like [SPEAKER_01]: Not only sensory, but like picking up ferramones and chemicals in the water, not quite like a nose, they can sense a little electromagnetic energy, yeah, they're a really really complex organ that we don't understand very well, and all eSox have them.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, basically, if you flip up a pike and look at its jaw, it just, they're big pores.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, just like, they've been these space dots or holes, just under the lower jaw.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think pike have eight northern pike.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I've eight, so it's the only way you can really tell pike and musky apart when they're, like, fry small, like tiny.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking small in your finger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because they all have the same, like, all e-sock babies look the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where they have the big tear drop through their eye and [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, they all look the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're very very very hard to tell apart when they're like under five inches.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right So what for like when I my fisheries work it mattered [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, I count them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Pike did not score nearly as high as a musky.

[SPEAKER_02]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: You needed to know if a musky was in the bunch, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that changed the score dramatically.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, which meaning good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's good.

[SPEAKER_01]: If they're supporting a musky, it's good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've been just Mr.

E today.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I've been Jay, and on this long episode of freaky fauna friday, as you enjoy it, why don't you get outside, get some of that fresh cold winter air in you, and just enjoy this winter, and enjoy the holiday season.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.

[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to freaky fauna friday.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to help the podcast grow, remember to share and give it a five star review.