# Fish ID help



## jaysin05 (Sep 12, 2010)

Fished the Cuyahoga river with a buddy today. We were skunked so we tied on some rat L traps to hopefully get a reaction bite. We pulled in Two of these fish.
Muskie, Tiger muskie, Grass pickerel? Any ideas?:Banane42:


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## Chubz (Apr 8, 2009)

Strips give it away. Tiger musky.


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## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

I vote for muskie..... but i'm not solid on that. I've never seen a pickerel other than on t.v.

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## jaysin05 (Sep 12, 2010)

Chubz said:


> Strips give it away. Tiger musky.


Thats what we are all leaning towards here. Not quite sure tho...


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## joebertin (Mar 26, 2010)

Yep, Tiger Musky.


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

tiger musky is a cross between a northern and and a ski right? so what is a tiger musky doing in the hoga? My vote gores to pickerel, tough im totally green on the subject.


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## jaysin05 (Sep 12, 2010)

buckzye11 said:


> tiger musky is a cross between a northern and and a ski right? so what is a tiger musky doing in the hoga? My vote gores to pickerel, tough im totally green on the subject.


indeed it is, but i have no idea.


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## PolymerStew (Feb 17, 2009)

Not a pickerel. The fins on a pickerel are colorless (dorsal,anal, tail), where the fins on a pike or muskie have dark spots on them.

I'd say northern pike. Could be a tiger muskie, but I don't know how likely it would be for one of those to be in the Cuyahoga.


Here's a picture of a pike and a grass pickerel I had in my aquarium for comparison. Both of these fish were 7-8" at the time. (Pike in front, pickerel in back)


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## barf (May 10, 2009)

as ignorant as I am, My vote is pike...from what I understand the hoga is full of them


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## MuskieJim (Apr 11, 2007)

There's a chance that it could be a tiger, muskies live in every tributary that touches the Great Lakes. It sure does look like one! A "true" tiger is female muskie eggs that have been fertilized by a pike, but this can happen down the road over time, or vise versa. We had a thread on it a while ago, check it out here. My vote is TIGER but it's hard to tell

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=130062


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

got to go with tiger musky, because of the stripes.
sherman


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

I'd say pike........ Tiger Muskies have dark stripes on a lighter colored body


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## BobcatJB (Mar 30, 2005)

Northern pike. 100% sure

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## bdawg (Apr 14, 2009)

The fish is probably a little pike. However, I did see a pic at the old Tackleshack bait shop once of a 20lb muskie that someone had caught in the river near Front St.


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## sheephead (Mar 31, 2012)

Bassbme said:


> I'd say pike........ Tiger Muskies have dark stripes on a lighter colored body


Totally agree Bassbme. Tigers usually have normal musky colors with stripes but I've never seen a small tiger so maybe they are darker when young?..cool lookin what ever it is


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## raiderdave (Oct 18, 2010)

That's a Baby Northern Pike ! Musky have the light body as previously stated.


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## Rootstown308 (Mar 15, 2012)

looks like i tiger musky, but having fished the river all my life and never seen a ski, its got to be a reg. pike.


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## NateDaug149 (Jul 31, 2009)

100 % Northern Pike


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## BBO Ohio (May 7, 2012)

100 % northern. As stated above tigers have darker spots then northern


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## BBO Ohio (May 7, 2012)

Maybe this will help


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## ewok9713 (Oct 25, 2010)

i talked to mike the biologist from the metro parksystem .
this is what he said
It appears to be a small northern pike, but could be a big grass pickerel. The photo is not good enough to see details well. Definitely not a small muskie.

Mike

Michael Durkalec, M.S.
Aquatic Biologist


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## Cleveland Metroparks (Dec 14, 2005)

Someone brought this thread to my attetion. It is not a great photo for observing the details, but as a fisheries biologist I can say it sure looks like a young northern pike to me.

Mike


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## lil goose (Oct 16, 2009)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but for the folks who keep saying pike i don't get it pike have horizontal dashes and this fish has vertical markings. Now with that being said i can't say that it is not some sort of pike hybrid but i have caught enough pike to tell you that the fish in the picture is not the real Mc coy!!!


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## BobcatJB (Mar 30, 2005)

Juvenile pike tend to have the noticeable vertical bars like the fish in the photo. The Cuyahoga is full of pike throughout the entire system, all the way down to the shipping channel in downtown Cleveland!

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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Here's a good link. Everyone can scroll to the bottom and look at the picture of a juvenile northern pike. Look familiar? 
http://www.luckylures.nl/esox_lucius.php

It's a pike.


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## I_Shock_Em (Jul 20, 2008)

There's no question that it is a juvenille northern pike


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