Esox Love

I’ve already admitted my love for sunset walleyes and fish tacos, and I certainly wasn’t exaggerating. Walleyes are classy, a sharp-dressed fish with that white-tipped tail. I often imagine if they partook in spirits, they’d drink fine wine with their pinkies up.

Walleyes can be difficult to target and thus rewarding to figure out. Most importantly, they offer a large, intact fillet of flaky deliciousness and, perhaps best of all, cheek and wing nuggets that make some of the finest table fare freshwater game has to offer.

Yet, there’s no denying these aristocrats don’t put up too much of a fight. As sportfishing goes, I’ll take a feisty smallmouth bass over a walleye any day. And to each their own, we all prefer to chase certain species for their various traits and aspects, but I am getting a little sick of the mistreatment and false representation of the northern pike.

As a member of the Esox genus, along with muskellunge, they’re hands down some of the most tenacious fish in North Dakota’s waters. Because of this, pike, in my opinion, are some of the most fun fish to reel in and their aggression makes them relatively easy to target.

Even better is trying to pursue them on the fly, in the winter by hand on a tip up, or by cutting a hole in the ice and darkhouse spearing. They love shine, sparkle and quick retrieving lures, but won’t turn their noses up at static live bait either. For a new angler, these characteristics combine for a enjoyable introductory experience. And they manage to bring a pretty big smile to this veteran angler’s face too.

Perhaps second to walleye in taste (maybe), you’ve heard it wrong if someone has told you northerns are gross. In fact, the last two fish fries at home, the darkhouse-speared northern pike meal was easily better than the spring walleye one. Now many things can affect fish flavor including water body, time of year, meat care, fish size and other individualities, but my point is pike are delicious.

Maybe the reason people like to pretend differently is because they do have an extra set of bones called “Y bones” in their back that take an additional step to remove and can result in a separated fillet. Fortunately, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department has produced a pretty slick video to show you how to remove them. With practice, it becomes no more difficult than standard filleting.