It wasn't a pike but a few years ago whilst fishing a lake my brother and I witnessed a cormorant dive and a few seconds later surface with a carp (we estimated about 5 lb) by the head. The cormorant then extended its neck / head to vertical and tried to balance and swallow the carp which was flapping its tail. The fish (I think) was just too large and too heavy and after about 30 seconds of this it dropped the fish.

We were amazed at the strength of the cormorant, the fact that it could actually hold a fish of this size in a vertical position and still remain afloat with all that weight directly over its head.

Having seen that I have no doubt that a jack pike would not be a problem...relatively slim and streamlined (compared to a deep bodied carp) so a lot easier to swallow !!!!!!

Nigel