Rare Pike Phenomenom (pic)

[grumpymoe]

out on the water this morning. not too much happening except for a flurry of activity from the numerous muskrats and ducks. trolling along and spotted what I thought was another muskrat heading upstream.  went on by and noticed it was a decent pike with mouth wide open skimming the surface. I must have went about 75' past, and thought I should try and get a pic if I'm lucky. motor in reverse and pushed as close as I dare without spooking it. excuse one of the shots. a little blurry due to full zoom and movement of the boat. I laughed when it ran mouth wide open into a lily pad...still at a 45 degree angle in the water....finally decided our intrusion was enough and submerged......Grump                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    excuse this shot....back to the sun and trying to find the fish in the viewfinder...lower left.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

[Pikeguy]

Cool pics Grump. I've heard of that but never witnessed it. Thanks for sharing 

[xrhino]

Thanks Grump!  I've never gotten to see that.

[archbishop]

cool pics grump, i have never heard of that? what is the purpose?

[xrhino]

cool pics grump, i have never heard of that? what is the purpose?

I think the jury istill out on that.  I've heard numerous theories, but no final word.

[grumpymoe]

one of the members posted something about this not very long ago, but no pic. in all the years around various waters from Ontario to the west coast, I've never witnessed it until now. what was crazy, was the amount of time I had to back up and start snapping shots. from the time I first spotted it, to the last pic, was around 4 minutes. some think it is due to low oxygen levels, but I think not. no dead fish around and water is close to 9' deep where the shots were taken...on the first pass, it seemed as if it was intent on grabbing anything and everything on the surface of the water...pretty consistent until it decided a mouthfull of lily pad was too much lol. open to any thoughts....Grump

[archbishop]

one of the members posted something about this not very long ago, but no pic. in all the years around various waters from Ontario to the west coast, I've never witnessed it until now. what was crazy, was the amount of time I had to back up and start snapping shots. from the time I first spotted it, to the last pic, was around 4 minutes. some think it is due to low oxygen levels, but I think not. no dead fish around and water is close to 9' deep where the shots were taken...on the first pass, it seemed as if it was intent on grabbing anything and everything on the surface of the water...pretty consistent until it decided a mouthfull of lily pad was too much lol. open to any thoughts....Grump

i always was told pike didnt mind low O2 levels
wives tail or true?

[grumpymoe]

pike are very tolerant to low oxygen...moreso than coarse fish such as suckers which are the first to go when it drops....pike seem to handle it the best from what I've seen. Grump

[pikemaster789]

thats wierd but cool

[pike hound]

I've never heard of that before, that's pretty cool!

[Grimace]

maybe he just wanted to have a look around, see what was shaking on the shore

[sbfpa_Mike]

I was told they do that when they are in distress. Not necessarily from low o2 levels, but when they are in distress. I think it was conservation officer, but that would be taxing my memory.

Mike

[lilchief]

Trippy man....................lilchief

[camo_fish]

Those are some great pictures, I've seen that only once. It was weird and cool looking to see a pike swimming along with it's snout out of water like that.  very strange indeed and a once in a life time thing. Thanks for taking some great pictures and sharing this experience. 

[arthur]

I actaully "caught" a small pike doing that. It actually swam into the middle of my line (running from the boat to a slipbobber) and got its teeth caught in the line. It didn't really care all that much if at all, just kind of treading water there. I easily apporached, netted him, took the line out of his mouth, and sent him on his way.

Worst thing, it was all I caught that day!