What fish do pike perfer to eat given the choice

[bluerinse]

From when I kept a pike in a tank, I would surmise that its favourite foods were minnows, whitebait, its own reflection, artery forceps and fingers.

 

Basically, it went for anything that came near it and looked vaguely edible. I think pike are mostly opportunists.

 

 

There must be some element of selection, some days you can fish a mackerel and have no takes but pop a piece of lamprey or a smelt on and you start catching.

 

Since observing the pike feed on the perch I have used them as live baits very successfully, I would never have used a perch before observing this behaviour as I remember reading as a kid (possible in the observer book of British fishes) that pike did not eat perch (and I believe it also said tench)

Anyway I am curious about this point as it seems to me quite important in the approach to catch pike. It seems a worth while topic to discuse

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes Perch because of the spines and tench because they were the "Dr" fish!!! both great live baits so no body must have told the pike this!

 

Yes it is an interesting topic.

 

I think that there is a kind of selection.But like I said feel that this is done either conciously or not by the pike on other factors.The ease of availability,ease of capture and "efficiency" (by that I mean amount of protein gained for amount of energy expended) Feeding naturally this would obviously dictate what the pike targeted but when a bait is put in front of it its very unlikely to refuse it regardless of species.

 

Its important to make a divide between natural feeding and the taking of an anglers bait.Anglers baits after all have the advantage of being an easy meal ie a patted live roach is going to be a lot easier meal than a natural one!

 

Ive not really found any one type of deadbait to work better than another on any set day though just different waters (and some times in different years) different baits work better. I think they are very much going to feed or not.I could see that different baits may apear to work better on some days but would put this down to other factors.Things such as your not on the pike location wise so (eg) a smellier bait may work better by attracting the pike from a greater distance,or the colour of the bait make it more visable in different light/water clarity conditions.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I think pike can be choosy about the live prey they target. It's easy to assume that pike only target whatever is easiest to capture but where there is an abundant variety of foods available, nearly all animals display some variation in their dietary requirements.

If pike only chose to take whatever was easiest for them to capture, we'd catch them on any lure, fished as slowly as possible and this is simply not the case, so they can show some discipline or choice. The wider the variety of possible prey items that pike have, the harder they can be to catch in my experience.

In waters with limited species and numbers, pike will often nail anything, so availability is definitely has some bearing in what pike will and will not eat. Healthy, fit pike can be very choosy, often ignoring deadbaits, livebaits and all manner of lures, simply because they can and very often they'll only eat at certain 'feeding spells' but thin, sickly pike are extremely easy to catch on a wide variety of baits and lures at almost any time of the day.

[Dick Dastardly]

thin, sickly pike are extremely easy to catch on a wide variety of baits and lures at almost any time of the day.

 

 

Yes I would definately agree on that Andy.

[Steve Walker]

It's worth having a read around optimal foraging theory and the idea of search images and switching. Quick primer here:

 

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Optimal_foraging_theory

 

and more here

 

http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gross/eeb507/ecob...preyswitch.html

 

They are not universally accepted, and I must admit that I didn't really like the theories when I sat through lectures on them, but there are some interesting ideas, which have been around for a long time now. The important idea about search images and switching is that predators will become preoccupied with a particular prey item which it is particularly profitable to target; classically because it is most abundant, but it could be most quickly eaten or the best mouthful for the effort expended. In targeting that particular prey, other perfectly acceptable prey are to some extent ignored.

 

So, the theory goes, if the thing most likely to result in a worthwhile meal is a silvery roach, pike may become fixated upon striking at those particular cues and a three inch silver spoon may be the best lure, rather than a plug which imitates a perch. If small perch are currently in abundance, the plug may be the thing to trigger feeding. If there is nothing much to eat, the pike might not be preoccupied at all, and might go for anything vaguely fish-shaped.

 

I'm still not entirely convinced, but there are aspects of the behaviour described that we will recognise from fishing for various species.

[corydoras]

Don't forget that pike don't only eat fish.

[Dick Dastardly]

Steve Ive sat through similar myself! Dont think its 100% correct either! The ONLY situation Ive seen "pre occupation" with Pike is when they are fry feeding (well to an extent anyway)

 

Even one the TR's where they seem to (on the main one I fish regularly) be either targetting the stockies or the roach shoals they dont hesitate in taking a smaller (8") trout live bait whilst hammering either!

 

Mind you the big roach we get from the fish traps are often the first taken once again regardless of what they are targetting.

[Dick Dastardly]

Going back to Andys point about sickly/thin pike.Heres a picture of one such that took a half mackeral on a water where lives out score deads at over 30:1 and singles to doubles at a similar ratio.

 

 

A one time lump that for some reason unknown (possibly just age) had dropped to nearly half of what I would have expected its top weight to have been.

Edited November 11, 2008 by BUDGIE

[Neil G]

I think pike can be choosy about the live prey they target. It's easy to assume that pike only target whatever is easiest to capture but where there is an abundant variety of foods available, nearly all animals display some variation in their dietary requirements.

If pike only chose to take whatever was easiest for them to capture, we'd catch them on any lure, fished as slowly as possible and this is simply not the case, so they can show some discipline or choice. The wider the variety of possible prey items that pike have, the harder they can be to catch in my experience.

In waters with limited species and numbers, pike will often nail anything, so availability is definitely has some bearing in what pike will and will not eat. Healthy, fit pike can be very choosy, often ignoring deadbaits, livebaits and all manner of lures, simply because they can and very often they'll only eat at certain 'feeding spells' but thin, sickly pike are extremely easy to catch on a wide variety of baits and lures at almost any time of the day.

 

+1

 

Definately depends on the availabilty of baitfish...I imagine in waters where small fish are thin on the ground pike will be willing to take pretty much whatever is in front of them to stay alive!

[Neil G]

I think pike can be choosy about the live prey they target. It's easy to assume that pike only target whatever is easiest to capture but where there is an abundant variety of foods available, nearly all animals display some variation in their dietary requirements.

If pike only chose to take whatever was easiest for them to capture, we'd catch them on any lure, fished as slowly as possible and this is simply not the case, so they can show some discipline or choice. The wider the variety of possible prey items that pike have, the harder they can be to catch in my experience.

In waters with limited species and numbers, pike will often nail anything, so availability is definitely has some bearing in what pike will and will not eat. Healthy, fit pike can be very choosy, often ignoring deadbaits, livebaits and all manner of lures, simply because they can and very often they'll only eat at certain 'feeding spells' but thin, sickly pike are extremely easy to catch on a wide variety of baits and lures at almost any time of the day.

 

+1

 

Definately depends on the availabilty of baitfish...I imagine in waters where small fish are thin on the ground pike will be willing to take pretty much whatever is in front of them to stay alive!