Tiger muskellunge

The tiger is a hybrid of the muskellunge and northern pike. Male hybrids are almost invariably sterile although females are sometimes fertile. Some hybrids are artificially produced and planted for anglers to catch. Tiger muskies tend to be smaller than non-hybrid muskies but grow faster. Neither of the parent species is native to Washington.

Tiger muskellunge are a light silver, brown or green with dark, variable markings, often as oblique stripes, spots, or blotches. In some cases, markings may be absent altogether, especially in fish from turbid waters. This is in contrast to northern pike which have dark bodies with light markings. Its belly is white with small spots. The fins are green to red-brown with dark blotches. Juveniles have broad scalloped bars of olive green along its sides and a gold mid-dorsal stripe on its back with a white belly. Tiger muskellunge have a slimy, long, slender, and serpentine like body with a forked tail. They also have fully scaled cheeks and five sensory pores on each side of the ventral surface of the lower jaw. The mouth is duck-bill shaped and is lined with many sharp, backward-slanting canine teeth and the dorsal fin located far to the back of the body.

In appearance, the tiger musky is a real cross between its two parents. Tigers have the cheek and gill cover scale pattern of northern pike, but the barred dark body markings on a light background like the muskellunge. A sure way of distinguishing the two similar species is by counting the sensory pores on the underside of the mandible. A muskie will have seven or more per side while the northern pike never has more than six. The lobes of the caudal (tail) fin in muskellunge come to a sharper point while those of northern pike are more generally rounded.