# Thought it was a Muskie, cuyahoga (edited)



## Dirty Mudskipper (Mar 2, 2011)

Nephew pulled this in Kent a few hours ago. Pretty stoked, both my nephews are slowly becoming pros with my little guy coming up behind em.


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## The Fishing Addict (Mar 19, 2014)

That’s a northern pike just to let you know!


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## Dirty Mudskipper (Mar 2, 2011)

That’s after his first smallie at Milton yesterday


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## Dirty Mudskipper (Mar 2, 2011)

The Fishing Addict said:


> That’s a northern pike just to let you know!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Believe you’re right, but how the heck do you tell the difference? I know pike are there but thought Muskie we’re dark w/light spots and pike were light with dark spots, plus the caudal fin looks pointed vs rounded. Just trying to figure it out. Thanks in advance


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## set-the-drag (Jan 13, 2013)

Muskie are lighter in color and dont have the marking like a pike at all completely different. Look at a few of the muskie post in here and you'll see the difference there heads are way different to pike are narrowed muskie are wider. Kinda like the difference between a alligator and croc


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Muskie and pike look completely different. That is 100% a pike muskies are a silverish to sometimes a greenish color and although sometimes pike can have the same color tones a pike has very prominent visible markings and are going to be generally darker colored than a muskie. Now a tiger muskie has more like like coloration but will have very pronounced bars much like you would see on a tiger.


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## One guy and a boat (Aug 8, 2018)

Nice catch and congrats.









Kip


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## island troller (Nov 14, 2007)

Complete opposite there. Great Lake Muskies are light with dark spots and pike are dark with light spots. Nice Pike


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

The “Great Lakes“ strain of musky(can) slightly resemble a Northern pike. They have a lot of distinct spots(my son has caught two in Erie). The normal “stocked” variety of musky in our inland lakes doesn’t have spotting going on and typically “solid light/white“ side coloration with dark vertical bars with little, usually no, “spot” markings. Best way to distinguish a musky from a northern(they are all members if the “pike” family), is to count the “pores” under their lower jaw. Musky have 6 or more on each side, northerns 5 or less! An interesting observation is that where they both exist and successfully spawn, northern fry will eat the musky fry since they are spawned first/earlier, and are larger by the time the musky fry are present!(JMTCW, FWIW!)


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## tomb (Oct 9, 2004)

All true.
Nice pike.

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## kissfan1 (Jun 21, 2011)

set-the-drag said:


> Muskie are lighter in color and dont have the marking like a pike at all completely different. Look at a few of the muskie post in here and you'll see the difference there heads are way different to pike are narrowed muskie are wider. Kinda like the difference between a alligator and croc


Absolutely! Also, the difference between an alligator and a crocodile! One you'll see later, the other after while....


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## Pole Squeezer (Jun 21, 2008)

Dirty Mudskipper said:


> View attachment 476241
> 
> Nephew pulled this in Kent a few hours ago. Pretty stoked, both my nephews are slowly becoming pros with my little guy coming up behind em.


Glad to see the size of pike improving in the river in Kent. There used to be some bruiser-sized pike there. I hope they're coming back.


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