Pike - Pickerel Hybrid?

[KeukaZ71]

Cool looking fish!  We all have our opinions but none of us truly know.  I like hearing peoples opinions tho. Mine would be a Pike with very cool markings. But who am I to say.  This is the first I have heard of counting the pores tho. Interesting. A professional opinion would be great!

my major in college was fishery biology. i guess my suggestions for identification are somewhat professional 

[callduckfarm]

So, I would surmize that the fish is a young pike in a juvenile color phase?
Not sure if we will ever know for sure, but appreciate all the info that has been offered.
My kids knew right away when they caught it that it was different.
Now I wish we had taken some close up pics of it.

There was a picture of a supposed pike/pickerel cross on the Maine forums, but now I can't find it.

[devo]

It's a Blue pIke!

[Sullymon]

I'm no expert ... but I'd say that's definitely a pike.  There are many genetic variations that can and has occurred worldwide.  Especially if genes from another "strain" of pike via interconnected waterways and anglers releasing foreign pike into the lake.  I have seen many different variations of pike, more than likely caused by gene mixing, interbreeding, or even evolutionary isolation ... Crossbreeding (hybrids) with pickerel or musky is less likely the culprit.  Most people assume that since they've never seen a pattern like that, it must me crossbred.  Ever see a deer with large white spots on it?  They look like a cow/deer hybrid ... which couldn't be any further from the truth.


Check this out:
http://www.pacgb.co.uk/aboutpike/oddities.htm

[magic]

While you can never rule anything out entirely, hybrids, such as tiger musky, are sterile and can't breed. Seems extremely unlikely that tiger muskys are breeding. Possible though rare that a pike and pickeral would cross breed and produce young in wild.

NYSDEC web site has info you can look at on fish species.

A couple guys got it right, ignore the pigment markings (largely), look at:  cheek and gill cover for scale patterns, presence of bar below eye, and number of pores on under side of jaw.

Northern pike can be distinguished from their cousins, the pickerels, by the scaleless lower half of the gill covers. Their bodies are dark green to brown with light bean-shaped spots. There is no distinct dark bar beneath the eye. The undersurface of the lower jaw has eight to
12 pores and there are often bright gold markings on both sides of the head.

chain Pickeral - Its fully scaled cheeks and gill covers distinguish it from the northern pike and muskellunge, while its large size and distinct chain link marks on its sides differentiate it from other pickerels. The chain pickerel is green to bronze in color, with eight sensory pores on the undersurface of the lower jaw and a conspicuous dark bar beneath each eye, which extends straight down or slightly forward. Grass and redfins also have same scale pattern and tend to be very small.

[Sullymon]

While you can never rule anything out entirely, hybrids, such as tiger musky, are sterile and can't breed. Seems extremely unlikely that tiger muskys are breeding. Possible though rare that a pike and pickeral would cross breed and produce young in wild.

NYSDEC web site has info you can look at on fish species.

A couple guys got it right, ignore the pigment markings (largely), look at:  cheek and gill cover for scale patterns, presence of bar below eye, and number of pores on under side of jaw.

Northern pike can be distinguished from their cousins, the pickerels, by the scaleless lower half of the gill covers. Their bodies are dark green to brown with light bean-shaped spots. There is no distinct dark bar beneath the eye. The undersurface of the lower jaw has eight to
12 pores and there are often bright gold markings on both sides of the head.

chain Pickeral - Its fully scaled cheeks and gill covers distinguish it from the northern pike and muskellunge, while its large size and distinct chain link marks on its sides differentiate it from other pickerels. The chain pickerel is green to bronze in color, with eight sensory pores on the undersurface of the lower jaw and a conspicuous dark bar beneath each eye, which extends straight down or slightly forward. Grass and redfins also have same scale pattern and tend to be very small.

I'd have to agree on that one

[Creighster]

I know I'm bring back a topic from nearly 10 years ago here, but I just watched a video and now I'm curious. IDK who else watches fishing on YouTube but Extream Philly Fishing just posted a video where at the end he posses the question as to whether or not the fish he was catching were Norther Pike or Northern Pike X Chain Pickerel hybrids. The pictures of one of his fish looked just like the fish that started this thread in 2009. In the video he cites a scientific report from 1965 that documents that a natural hybrid between a Northern Pike and a Chain Pickerel occurred in Cayuga Lake back in 1918. So in other words there is scientific proof out there that a natural hybrid between Pike an Pickerel can happen, the question is weather or not this hybridization is common in waters where both species occur, and whether or not these fish in question are hybrids.

The link to the video (he discusses the hybrid possibility at 12:45).

I've also caught fish that looked like that before, I've always considered them Pike since they didn't have the eye band. I'm curious if they could be hybrids now?

[Ruhman1225]

We caught this fish on Conesus Lake this morning.
It has markings that are not quite normal for a pike.
Was wondering if it is a cross from a pike/pickerel mating.
(Image removed from quote.)

Grass Pickerel