I didn't check to see the scales on the cheek, and deleted the link. If
anyone has it I would like to check that out.
The markings on the side though, that is how northern pike young look until
they get to about a foot long. The white bands then begin to break up into
the typical spots.
Cheek scales are pretty much the same on northern and pickeral, the
operculum is the difference. Pickeral have fully scaled cheeks and
operculums , while northern have fully scaled cheeks and only the top area
of the operculums are scaled. My apologies if you meant the entire area as
cheek.
Todd's indication of voucher specimans for species found in new locations is
well illustrated here. Imagine no picture even to reference could really
lead to disagreements on what was actually caught.
Earlier this fall Ray Katula and I were catching pickeral in a small trib
off the Lemonwier River in Juneau county. We were doing pretty well, and
caught a five inch northern. At first we were going to keep it, but it just
didn't seem right. Even there, fish in hand, we had to check it out for a
bit to make sure. All the fish that day were in that size range. Actually
comparing the northern to the pickeral made the difference a bit more
apparent. Color was quite different, body shape mostly in cross section,
bill in relation to head length, and the arragement of color patterns.
Ray
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