was fishing yesterday for trout and came upon this pike. it was lying half dead
upside down in a shallow bay. i took it the short distance to the bank and i inspected it.i looked in its mouth and it had another pike stuck in its throat.
i returned it were i found it. do you think it choked? i estimated it to be 12lb

Looks like it has a bit of a pug nose going on there.
Dont fancy its chances. Big pike are quite delicate and this one is bleeding like a stuck pig.
Where were you , Oich?

__________________
It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Hi Fortbhoy,
Its one of those snub nosers, quite a common genetic deformation, doesn't seem to affect the pike too much ( if it did, it wouldn't be growing to that size). Seems alot of blood, cant understand why a fish thats choking would be bleeding so heavily, sure some idiots haven't caught it on a jack pike bait and then discarded it. Having said that i have heard of pike choking on large prey but I've also seen a 7lber with a 4lber in it gob.....Greedy burgers

hi,
Pike predate on each other all the time it's not unusual to find a dead or dying pike having tried to swallow a fish far too big too handle.Of course because their teeth slope back all 7-900 of them they cannot eject once they start to swallow.
Pike eating each other is natures way of keeping their numbers down and a healthy ratio of survivors ..they have no other predators to speak of..

John

---------- Post added at 07:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 PM ----------

its more than possible that the victims struggles ruptured a blood vessel or two round the gill rakers hence the blood.

John

__________________

If it was a trout i would say it looks like ipn (infectious pancreatic nucrosis) fish go dark, blind and come out with blood rupture under the skin and in the mouth also known as redmouth . Got to say it looks awfully much like it.

Pug nose pike are common.

IPN a salmonid disease rife throughout the fish farming industry ..but similarities there at first glance doubt it concerning the pike in the photo ..with IPN fish go totally off the feed.

john

__________________

Didn't stunt this one's growth.

I would say an angler has hooked it and threw it on the bank.

I think you have two completely different diseases mixed up there.

Yes you are right, that's why i said "if it were a trout".

Its really a strange one.it looks like ipn in every way. But like you said why the fish stuck in its throat, and also how if its blind is it feeding. Unless its suffering with some illness before and it was half blind before it nabbed the fish which was too big for it to swallow. Weird