The American pickerel is a medium-sized species of North American freshwater predatory fish belonging to the pike family. The genus Esox is placed in family Esocidae in order Esociformes).
The muskellunge, often shortened to muskie,musky, ski, or lunge, is a species of large freshwater predatory fish native to North America. It is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae.
The largemouth bass is a carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico. It is known by a variety of regional names, such as the widemouth bass, bigmouth bass, black bass, bucketmouth, largie, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, bucketmouth bass, green trout, Gilsdorf bass, Oswego bass, LMB, and southern largemouth and northern largemouth.
The walleye, also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European zander, also known as the pikeperch. The walleye is sometimes called the yellow walleye to distinguish it from the blue walleye, which is a color morph that was once found in the southern Ontario and Quebec regions, but is now presumed extinct. However, recent genetic analysis of a preserved (frozen) 'blue walleye' sample suggests that the blue and yellow walleye were simply phenotypes within the same species and do not merit separate taxonomic classification.
Esocidae is a family of fish in the order Esociformes, which contains pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. While the family traditionally only contained the genus Esox, recent genetic and paleontological research have recovered Novumbra and Dallia as members of the family Esocidae, being closer related to Esox than Umbra. Fossil specimens from the Mesozoic in North America have been assigned as two additional genera in this family.
The Esociformes is a small order of freshwater ray-finned fish, with two families, Umbridae and Esocidae. The pikes of genus Esox give the order its name.
The northern pike is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox (pikes). They are commonly found in moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere. They are known simply as a pike in Great Britain, Ireland, most of Eastern Europe, Canada and the U.S., although in the Midwest, they may be called a Northern.
Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniques such as handlining also exist. Modern angling rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a cranking device for storing, retrieving and releasing out the line, although Tenkara fishing and traditional cane pole fishing are two rod-angling methods that do not use any reel. The fish hook itself can be additionally weighted with a denser tackle called a sinker, and is typically dressed with an appetizing bait to attract and entice the fish into swallowing the hook, but sometimes an inedible fake/imitation bait with multiple attached hooks is used instead of a single hook with edible bait. Some type of bite indicator, such as a float, a bell or a quiver tip, is often used to relay underwater status of the hook to the surface and alert the angler of a fish's presence.
The tiger muskellunge, commonly called tiger muskie, is a carnivorous fish, and is the usually sterile, hybrid offspring of the true muskellunge and the northern pike. It lives in fresh water and its range extends to Canada, the Northeast, and the Midwest United States. It grows quickly; in one study, tiger muskie grew 1.5 times as fast as muskellunge. Like other hybrid species, tiger muskie are said to have "hybrid vigor," meaning they grow faster and stronger than the parent fish, and are also less susceptible to disease. Trophy specimens weigh about 14 kg (30 lb). Its main diet is fish and small birds. The tiger muskie and the muskie are called the fish of 10,000 casts due to the challenge involved in catching them.
A fishing lure is any one of a broad category of artificial angling baits that are inedible replicas designed to mimic prey animals that attract the attention of predatory fish, typically via appearances, flashy colors, bright reflections, movements, vibrations and/or loud noises which appeal to the fish's predation instinct and entice it into gulping the lure. Angling activities using lures are known as lure fishing.
The chain pickerel is a species of freshwater fish in the pike family of order Esociformes. The chain pickerel and the American pickerel belong to the Esox genus of pike.
Handline fishing, or handlining, is a fishing technique where a single fishing line is held in the hands, rather than with a fishing rod like the usual angling, of which handlining is a subtype. Handlining is not to be confused with handfishing, which is catching fish by hand. When handlining, one or more fishing lures or baited hooks are attached to the line, and a fishing lure and often a weight and/or a fishing float can also be attached to the line. Handlining is among the oldest forms of fishing and is still practiced throughout the world today.
A spinnerbait or spinner is any one of a family of hybrid fishing lures that combines the designs of a swimbait with one or more spoon lure blades. Spinnerbaits get the name from the action of the metallic blades, which passively revolve around the attachment point like a spinning propeller when the lure is in motion, creating varying degrees of vibration and flashing that mimic small fish or other preys of interest to large predatory fishes. The two most popular types of spinnerbaits are the in-line spinner and safety pin spinnerbait, though others such as the tail spinner also exist. Spinnerbaits are used principally for catching freshwater fishes such as perch, pike and bass.
Fishing tackle is the equipment used by anglers when fishing. Almost any equipment or gear used in fishing can be called fishing tackle, examples being hooks, lines, baits/lures, rods, reels, floats, sinkers/feeders, nets, spears, gaffs and traps, as well as wires, snaps, beads, spoons, blades, spinners, clevises and tools that make it easy to tie knots.
Umbridae is a family of fish in the order Esociformes, which contains pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. The single living genus, Umbra, occupies weed-choked freshwater habitats in eastern North America and eastern Europe. While the family traditionally contained the genera Umbra, Novumbra, and Dallia, recent genetic and paleontological research have recovered this grouping as paraphyletic, with Novumbra and Dallia being moved to the family Esocidae.
Fishing bait is any luring substance used specifically to attract and catch fish, typically when angling with a hook and line. There are generally two types of baits used in angling: hookbaits, which are directly mounted onto fish hooks and are what the term "fishing bait" typically refers to; and groundbaits, which are scattered separately into the water as an "appetizer" to attract the fish nearer to the hook. Despite the bait's sole importance is to provoke a feeding response out of the target fish, the way how fish react to different baits is quite poorly understood.
Esox cisalpinus, the southern pike or cisalpine pike, is a species of freshwater fish known from central and northern Italy, southeastern France and Switzerland, and it might also occur in the western Balkans. It has traditionally been considered a southern European variant of the widespread northern pike, but was described as a separate species in 2011. Like the northern pike, southern pike are an important species for recreational fisheries and for its role as a top predator in freshwater ecosystems.
The Aquitanian pike is a species of pike, a predatory fish native from the Charente to the Adour river drainages in the French Great South-West region. It was scientifically described in 2014, but had formerly been regarded as a population of the widespread northern pike. The two species generally resemble each other and they are able to hybridize. This represents as threat to the relatively localized Aquitanian pike, as northern pikes commonly have been used to stock places previously only inhabited by the Aquitanian pike; historically, the two had fully separated distributions.
The redfin pickerel is a subspecies of freshwater fish belonging to the pike family (Esocidae) of the order Esociformes. Not to be confused with its close relatives, the grass pickerel and the chain pickerel, this fish is unique in the fact that it has brightly colored red fins. Like all pikes, the redfin pickerel is an ambush predator, lying amongst thick vegetation in wait for smaller, more agile prey to enter within its range of attack.
Triaenophorus nodulosus, the pike tapeworm, is a species of parasitic cestode (tapeworm) in the family Triaenophoridae. It is known to infect the northern pike, as well as other piscivorous fish, being found in the intestine of its host. It has been found in North America, Europe and England.
