Freshwater fish – perch, chub, bream, roach and many others – tend to spawn from April and May onwards.
Pike are different. By mid-March, they’re already thinking of breeding. The aim is to give their young a head start, so they can prey on other species’ fry.
During spawning season, small packs of amorous male pike will pursue the much larger females (most individuals over about 5kg will be female). They all eagerly jostle for position, to be in with a chance of mating.
Large female pike, which can grow over 1m long, can produce as many as 500,000 eggs.
Top image credit: Abadonian/Getty Images
More amazing wildlife stories from around the world
- This “unique and crazy” prehistoric fish is the size of a door. Now thousands are being released into a remote Swedish river
- Just like in Jaws, this great white shark got stuck in a small pond. Here’s what happened next...
- 436-million-year-old fossil found in South China is oldest complete bony fish ever discovered
- It lasted thousands of years and puzzled Aristotle and Freud – is this the biggest animal mystery of all time?
