Giant man-eating pikes of Chukotka. Giant pike: size, weight. The largest pike caught Legends of huge cannibal pikes

Many men, and women too, strive to spend their weekends in the lap of nature. However, not all citizens love just walks in the forest or “quiet hunting”. Many people want to take a fishing rod and gear on the weekend to spend time fishing. Of course, you can’t do without boasting about your catch. Fishing for pike on the river is an interesting and exciting activity, and the catch can be simply amazing. In this article we will talk about the giant river predator - pike.

Some scientific information

Any student knows that pike is a river predatory fish and can grow to enormous sizes. In addition, scientists have long studied the habitat, external and internal structure, food preferences and features of catching toothy predators. In accordance with the classification in the biology textbook, pikes belong to the animal kingdom, the class of ray-finned fish, and the order of pike-shaped animals. Pike are freshwater fish. The body of the river predator is elongated, and the mouth has many sharp teeth, while the lower jaw protrudes significantly forward. Scientists have found that pike live on average more than 30 years, and its growth continues throughout its life. Fish can reach simply enormous sizes. The size of pike in a quiet backwater can reach 2 meters in length, and the weight of such a fish is 30-35 kg. The predator loves quiet muddy pools and calm bodies of water, so biologists do not recommend swimming in forest ponds. Where are pike found? The habitat of this fish is Europe, Siberia and even North America.

Stories from experienced people

It's no secret that fishermen love to talk about their adventures. Many avid fishermen not only embellish the size of the fish they catch, but also exaggerate the weight of the caught catch. For many years, there have been various legends and stories about giant pike among fishermen. Large pike are not uncommon in nature, but they can be very difficult to catch.

Fantasy runs wild...

Fishing is a fun and exciting activity that men and women, children and old people, boys and girls love to do. At the same time, every fisherman has several dozen stories about a lost catch or a giant fish caught by him. In order for a large pike to easily fall on a fisherman’s hook, you need to select the appropriate equipment, purchase bait and choose the optimal place for fishing.

Many fishermen were lucky enough to catch pike up to 1 meter long and weighing more than 15 kg. However, there are many fishing stories that tell of larger catches. The giant pike is the main character of such stories.

They ringed the predator and found out her age

There are truly fantastic stories and stories about the largest pikes. According to one popular legend, a giant pike was caught in Germany in 1497, and its weight was 140 kg. The length of the toothy predator exceeded 5.5 meters, and the age of the fish was 270 years. How did you find out the age of the pike? Everything is very simple - in 1230, by order of the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Frederick II, a special ring with a date was put on the river predator. It was from the ring that scientists were able to determine the age of the fish. The skeleton of a giant pike was placed in a museum in the city of Mannheim, where it was an exhibit for several years. Eyewitnesses claim that all the scales of the pike were white. Due to age, all melanin has completely disappeared from the fish’s body. Subsequently, biologists examined the skeleton and found that the giant pike was assembled from the bones of several fish. Thus, the story about the huge predator did not receive scientific confirmation and became a fishing fiction.

How are things in Russia?

In our country there is no less about the giant river predator. History says that when cleaning the Tsar's ponds in 1794, fishermen managed to catch a huge fish. The giant pike was ringed with a gold ring, and the mark of the Russian Tsar Boris Fedorovich was clearly visible on it. The length of this river predator almost reached 2 meters, and its weight exceeded 60 kg. Judging by the mark on the ring, the age of the caught fish was about 190 years. However, no evidence has been preserved about the capture of the river predator, except for mentions in documents. But, as people say, “paper will endure anything.” You should not trust the data that the largest pike caught lived in Russia.

Official information

In addition to fishing tales, there is also scientific evidence that giant pikes live in nature. Biologists have long proven that in North America There is a special subspecies of pike - the muskie. He's appearance It is very reminiscent of the pike we are used to, but in size, weight and age it is significantly ahead of it. The giant pike was caught in 1660 in North America. Its weight was 75 kg, and the length of the fish reached 200 cm. However, photographs of this giant were not preserved, because it was a very long time ago, and photographic technology was not developed. Modern representatives of this subspecies are much smaller. Scientists report that nowadays such large pikes are no longer found. Weight Limit pike can reach 45 kg, but this is enough for fishing stories.

Record catch

In addition to fishing stories and legends, there are officially confirmed facts of the capture of giant fish.

• The largest pike caught in our country was caught in 1930. The fisherman managed to catch a toothy predator weighing 35 kg and 1.9 meters in length. Many fishermen say that their catch weighed much more, but they did not want to advertise this fact.
• In 1957, a huge fish, a muskie, was caught in North America; its weight was 32 kg.
• Another giant pike was caught near the city of Sortavala. Her weight exceeded 49 kg. Such a large specimen was caught thanks to bait, while its role was played by another, smaller pike, with a body weight of 5 kg.
• In addition to the above facts, there are also other recorded catches of giant river predators. In Ukraine in Lake Ladoga local residents catch huge fish. Scientists have not been able to find out how long pike live in these places. Many fishermen claim that the age of the fish caught exceeds the 30-year mark. But this fact can neither be confirmed nor denied.

How to catch a predator?

Almost every angler knows that pike have quite strong and large jaws, so fishing gear must be powerful and strong. In addition, when a pike bites, the fisherman risks being left without gear. Therefore, more experienced fishermen prefer to use a wire leash instead of a regular leash. What other tricks do experienced fishermen use when fishing for pike?

• In order to catch a huge fish, you need a big bait. Fishermen know that pike bait must be at least 30 grams, otherwise the toothy predator will not want to feast on it.
• To catch a larger specimen, an angler should go fishing in secluded and quiet backwaters. The predator does not like loud sounds, so when a pike bites, you should not talk or shout loudly.
• The toothy pike loves the warm season. Most optimal time For fishing for this fish, late autumn or spring is considered. It is worth noting that in hot weather, the river predator tries to swim to depth and wait for the optimal ambient temperature.
• The places where pike are found are usually full of snags and mud, because this fish likes to hide and watch its prey from cover. When preparing gear, special attention should be paid to the bait. Pike is a typical predator, so it prefers to feast on live fish. In addition to bait, you can use a shiny wobbler or a spinner as bait.

Amazing catch these days

Do not think that nowadays catches of giant pike are no longer recorded. The largest predators were not only caught by our contemporaries, but also photographed as a souvenir. Records of recent years:

• In 2011, lucky fishermen in Canada caught a fish 118 cm in length.
• In the same 2011, the record of Canadian fishermen was broken, and a pike 130 cm long was caught in the St. Lawrence River.
• In 2013, American fisherman Mark Carlson took a photo with a huge toothy fish. The pike weighed as much as 27 kg, and its length exceeded 1 m 30 cm.
• In 2016, our compatriot Stepan Smolinyuk from Ufa was able to capture his catch in a photograph. He managed to catch a predator weighing almost 3 kg in the Belaya River; the fish reaches a meter in length.

Predator attack on animals

The pike is quite large predatory fish, for which catching a small animal or bird will not be difficult. Can a pike catch and eat a larger animal? Theoretically, this possibility cannot be excluded. Of course, it is not easy to catch young and strong animals, but in nature there are wounded and sick animals. Animals that bleed are special prey for toothy fish. Pike, like any other predator, perfectly smells blood and sees its prey from afar. It is better for a wounded animal not to cross a body of water inhabited by fish of the pike family. Can pike attack large animals? The answer will definitely be positive.

Man-eating pikes: myth or reality?

Old-timers say that in the reservoirs of Siberia there are giant fish that periodically eat people. According to them, such huge individuals can easily break through ice and even sink a fishing boat. Numerous stories about pikes eating people can be found among various indigenous peoples of Siberia: Nenets, Chukchi, Yakuts and others. For example, among the Chukchi there is a legend that a “biting fish” (as the people call the man-eating pike) managed to swallow a young fisherman, and the fish completely destroyed his boat. Local residents even managed to catch the monster, and in a very original way: 4 carts were completely filled with deer carcasses and placed at the bottom of the reservoir. The toothy predator began to devour food with such appetite that it did not notice the wooden carts under the venison. The teeth of the giant pike were completely stuck in the thickness of the tree, and the fishermen were able to pull the monster to the surface.

According to Eskimo legend, a giant fish managed to swallow two fishermen traveling around the lake in a light canoe. Their friend was present, but he was unable to help his friends. Having dealt with two men, the monster decided to eat the third fisherman. The surviving man began to row the oars so quickly that the giant cannibal monster could not keep up with the boat. As soon as the boat reached the shore, the fisherman ran into the forest. Subsequently, the victim claimed that the huge fish was a pike.

However, biologists do not agree with such legends. According to scientific data, the maximum size cannot be more than 2.5 meters. A fish of this length is unlikely to cope with an adult person and be able to eat him. Be that as it may, local residents do not recommend going close to some ponds and creeks.

A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it...

No one knows whether they occur in nature or not. However, many researchers describe in their scientific works the fact of the existence of fish of enormous size and weight. For example, in the book “Essays on the Narym Region” N. Grigorovsky mentions giant pikes that are found in remote Siberian reservoirs. Ethnographers Kulemzin and Lukina talk about a pike jaw seen in the home of one of the Khanty. The fish's jaw was so large that it was used as a coat hanger.

Almost all legends are about lake pikes; river specimens are much smaller in size. In the quiet and unexplored waters of Siberia, any fish can reach truly enormous sizes. The thing is that pike have nothing to fear in the lakes: there are no fishermen here, and large predators are quite rare in these places. But there is a lot of food for predators.

Let's sum it up...

How long do pikes live? What size can a giant lake fish have? How much can a toothy predator weigh maximum? Do man-eating monsters really live in our river bodies? Questions, questions, questions...

Let's hope that at least one huge pike will be caught in the near future, and scientists will finally be able to solve all the natural mysteries regarding these predatory fish.

Pike is not a fish, but a beast, which the supreme god Torum created headless. God feared his cruelty. But the pike was not confused and made its own head. She swam along the Ob, swallowing everything that came along the way - a moose, a bear, a woman with a bundle of firewood, a fisherman, a crow. What was eaten became a head. This is how the legend of the Siberian Khanty people describes the history of the appearance of pike. To this day, after preparing a pike, the Khanty take its skull apart piece by piece, telling the children who the first pike ate. The bones of the pike head really resemble the shapes of figurines of people, animals and birds. Thus, the Khanty not only entertain children, but also instill in them how dangerous the water cannibal is.

Interestingly, stories about giant pikes are common not only in Siberia. They are also known in Canada, Kalmykia, and Finland. The Finnish epic “Kalevala” talks about a pike from the Tuonela River, from whose jaws huge harps were made.

Apparently, the reason that giant pikes are unknown to official biology lies in the fact that all stories are told about lake fish, and not river fish. This is not surprising - pike have serious competitors in rivers, they are caught by fishermen and they simply cannot reach a huge size in old age. In lakes, no one threatens pikes, especially in lost taiga reservoirs. People rarely come here, there are almost no large predators. True, there is not much food. Perhaps this explains why pikes attack humans. If a four-meter predator can drag an elk or a fisherman underwater, why shouldn’t she do this? Especially if she's hungry. Most of the taiga and tundra lakes, where such giants can be found, have not been studied - as unnecessary...

Pike is not a fish, but a beast, which the supreme god Torum created headless. God feared his cruelty. But the pike was not confused and made its own head. She swam along the Ob, swallowing everything that came along the way - a moose, a bear, a woman with a bundle of firewood, a fisherman, a crow. What was eaten became a head. This is how the legend of the Siberian Khanty people describes the history of the appearance of pike. To this day, after preparing a pike, the Khanty take its skull apart piece by piece, telling the children who the first pike ate. The bones of the pike head really resemble the shapes of figurines of people, animals and birds. Thus, the Khanty not only entertain children, but also instill in them how dangerous the water cannibal is.

Stories about giant pikes are widespread among all the peoples of Siberia. These peoples live hundreds of kilometers from each other and, most likely, could not adopt these legends from each other. Interestingly, stories about giant pikes are common not only in Siberia. They are also known in Canada, Kalmykia, and Finland. The Finnish epic “Kalevala” talks about a pike from the Tuonela River, from whose jaws huge harps were made. Apparently, the reason that giant pikes are unknown to official biology lies in the fact that all the stories are told about lake fish, not river fish. This is not surprising - pike have serious competitors in rivers, they are caught by fishermen and they simply cannot reach a huge size in old age. In lakes, no one threatens pikes, especially in lost taiga reservoirs. People rarely come here, there are almost no large predators. True, there is not much food. Perhaps this explains why pikes attack humans. If a four-meter predator can drag an elk or a fisherman underwater, why shouldn’t she do this? Especially if she's hungry. Most of the taiga and tundra lakes, in which such giants can be found, have not been studied - as unnecessary... If you suddenly find yourself in a remote place and begin to fish in a dark lake without a source, be careful. Maybe you will see a huge, multi-meter pike and want to catch it for the glory of science. True, if I were you, I would quickly get ashore. Perhaps the monster is swimming to snack on you. It will still be impossible to catch him. Unless, of course, you have four sledges with reindeer meat.

Many areas of Siberia are known only through aerial photography, and even geologists study them, mainly moving along river beds. The local population also prefers to settle along the rivers - the Khanty, Mansi and Yakuts in the center of Siberia, and to the east and north - the Chukchi, Dolgans, Nganasans, Yukaghirs. Nobody knows what the taiga wilds hide. There are rumors that mammoths and giant spirits similar to primitive people still live here. There are other mysterious creatures, including giant man-eating pikes.

Legends say that these fish can be found in large lakes. According to the Selkups, a pike that has reached a hundred years of age specifically seeks out a deep body of water during river floods and remains there until its death. It is easy to find out the monster’s habitat - such a lake has no source, birds and animals avoid it. The Selkups call these lakes purulto - “black water lakes”, and will never fish or boat here. They are afraid to approach them even in winter, believing that monstrous pikes can break through the ice and feast on a traveler.

The Yakuts tell similar stories. Soviet ethnographer Aleksey Okladnikov recorded a story from one hunter about how a pike ate a young man.

“An old man lived with a guy. One hot day, the deer swam away from the old man to an island on the lake. The guy sat on a birch bark boat and chased the deer so that they would not go far. The old man is sitting at home at this time. Suddenly the water became agitated without wind. A large tail appeared, and a huge pike fish swallowed the guy, capsizing the boat with a large wave. This pike also slammed its mouth shut on the deer. The old man wept bitterly, mourning the death of his son. The next morning, he rode around the entire lake on a deer, trying to find at least the bones of the dead guy.

The old man had an ax in his hands. And suddenly, when he was driving close to the shore, the water, like a mound, became agitated again. A huge pike rushed towards him from the lake. The shore was low and flat. The pike rushed with such enormous force that it remained on the dry bank without reaching the old man. The old man jumped up and killed her with an ax. I cut open her belly and found the bones that were left from the guy; All that was left of the boat were chips. The old man took the jaw of that fish and placed it like a gate on the road that leads from this mountain lake to Lake Syalakh. Everyone drove through these gates without getting off the deer, the jaw was so high and wide.”

The Yakuts and Selkups are separated by many kilometers of impassable swamps and thickets. It is unlikely that they could borrow stories about cannibals from each other. It is even more difficult to believe that the Chukchi learned such stories from them. However, they also talk about huge pikes.

In Vladimir Bogoraz’s magnificent monograph “Chukchi” there is a separate chapter dedicated to monsters. Pike are also mentioned there, which the residents of Kolyma call juutku-naen - “biting fish”. According to legends, giant fish live in distant tundra lakes and hunt people, especially swimmers. They don’t disdain fishermen either.

The Chukchi have a story about how a pike devoured a young man who was fishing on a lake. The cannibal was caught in a very original way. The Chukchi lowered four sledges loaded with reindeer meat to the bottom of the lake. When the pike tried to eat the bait, its teeth got stuck in the debris of the sleigh. It took several people to pull the fish ashore.

The Yukaghirs, who live next to the Chukchi, also know giant pikes. They told a story about a fisherman who went to inspect his nets and in the water - on both sides of the shuttle - saw two large yellow eyes, the distance between which was equal to two oars. According to the fisherman, it was a huge pike lying motionless in the water.

Okladnikov heard similar stories from the Yakuts: “We used to see a pike on the lake: its eyes were visible on both sides of the birch bark boat.”

Let's move six thousand kilometers from Kolyma to the west, to Yamal, where there are legends about the wheatgrass - a man-eating fish with horns on its head. Valery Chernetsov, who recorded local legends, believed that the prototype of the monster were huge pikes. A Nenets hunter told him that three men once killed a huge fish in a lake in the Yenisei delta, and in its stomach they found a belt buckle. Sharks are rare in these places. There are no man-eating sharks at all, especially in fresh lakes. Chernetsov believed that it was a huge pike.

Now let's go down south, to the basin of the great Ob, to the Khanty, who believe that the water spirit Sart-lung turns into giant pikes. Werefish live in deep pools and lakes and can easily eat a boat.

By the way, the Khanty consider the pike not a fish, but a beast, which the supreme god Torum created headless, apparently fearing his cruelty. But the pike was not confused and made its own head. She swam along the Ob, swallowing everything that came along the way - a moose, a bear, a woman with a bundle of firewood, a fisherman, a crow. What was eaten became a head.

Having cooked the pike, the Khanty take its skull apart piece by piece, telling the children who the first pike ate. The bones of the pike head really resemble the shapes of figurines of people, animals and birds. In this way, the Khanty not only entertain children, but also instill in them how dangerous the water cannibal is.

The Khanty neighbors also know about the existence of monstrous pikes. The Mansi told folklorists about the yur-sort - a giant lake pike with a thin body and a large head, and about the anten-sort - a four-length horned pike that, on occasion, can eat a person.

It's incredible that such different nations, like the Chukchi and Mansi, there would be identical legends about the same animal, if there were no compelling reasons for this. But still, let’s say that in some incredible way, stories about man-eating pikes were invented, for example, by the Selkups, and all other nationalities liked them so much that they began to retell them in their own way. In this case, it is not clear what to do with similar stories that Canadians, Finns and even Kalmyks have.

Canadian Eskimo legends tell how a giant fish ate two fishermen at once. It happened when three men were swimming across a large lake near Saninayok. Two were sitting in kayaks connected to each other, the third was swimming separately and suddenly heard a loud cry for help. This huge fish attacked the fastened kayaks and swallowed them. The Eskimo realized that it would not be possible to save his comrades, and quickly swam to the shore. The monster started after him. It was moving so fast that it was pushing the waves in front of it, and they were pushing the kayak forward. As soon as the boat touched the shore, the man jumped out and ran away.

The Finnish epic “Kalevala” talks about a pike from the Tuonela River, from whose jaws large kantele harps were made.

The most interesting belief is among the Kalmyks, who believe that in remote steppe lakes there are very old, moss-covered pikes that swallow people and boats. Moreover, on the full moon they crawl ashore and crawl through the fields in search of food, attacking calves and cows.

Tales about giant pikes are very widespread. It is noteworthy that they speak not just about cannibal fish, but specifically about pikes. This is hardly accidental. In addition to pikes, there are many other monsters in mythology, including cruel water spirits. Why not attribute troubles and disasters to them? Why attribute them to fish, and not taimen or, for example, catfish, but specifically pike?

So the stories have a basis in reality? Why are giant pikes not found anywhere except in folklore? That's the thing, they meet. The same ethnographers repeatedly saw the remains of monstrous pikes.

One of the old, pre-revolutionary researchers of Siberian peoples, N. Grigorovsky, wrote in his work “Essays on the Narym Region” that giant pikes are actually found “in these remote places where no human has ever set foot.” He said that in the forest “near the village of Ketsky,” the lower jaw of a pike the length of a horse’s head, nailed to a tree, hung for a long time. By the way, according to him, local residents called the jaws of pikes sleds, which also indicates their considerable size.

Soviet scientists also saw huge remains. Ethnographers Vladislav Kulemzin and Nadezhda Lukina in one of their books mention a pike jaw nailed to the wall of a Khanty hut. The jaw had such teeth that fishermen hung raincoats and padded jackets on them.

My great-grandfather, who lived on the Don, during a big flood saw a huge pike in a water meadow near a haystack, looking like an old mossy log. He killed her with a pitchfork and fed her to pigs.

And traveler Anatoly Pankov in “Oymyakon Meridian” spoke about a bulldozer driver who shot a giant pike with a gun. This happened in Yakutia, in the lower reaches of the Indigirka River. The fish was old, covered with algae, green-brown, flabby, like cotton wool. It reached four meters in length. In addition, Pankov brought up another interesting story.


“An employee of the Silannyakhsky state farm, whose center is located on a tributary of the Indigirka, a young, erudite specialist, having learned about my passion for water travel, offered himself as a companion.

- Shall we sail along Silannyakh? – I asked half-jokingly.

– By Silannyakh?! On a canvas kayak? There are such pikes there that they will either puncture your kayak or pull you out of the boat. How many cases have there been of pikes being grabbed by the legs? They are so big – it’s scary to think...”

Biologists do not recognize the existence of giant pikes, much less cannibals. The most they are willing to do is admit that they reach two meters in length. However, what can prevent the pike from growing even larger - after all, it, like most fish, grows throughout its life!

The records of ethnographers about jaws that go beyond the recognized sizes of pikes, the legends of various peoples dedicated to pikes indicate that they can indeed reach enormous sizes.

Why are they unknown to scientists? The answer is actually simple. Almost all stories are about lake fish, not river fish. This is not surprising - pike have serious competitors in rivers, they are caught by fishermen and they simply cannot reach a huge size in old age.

In lakes, no one threatens pikes, especially in lost taiga reservoirs. People rarely come here, there are almost no large predators. True, there is not much food. Perhaps this explains why pikes attack humans. If a four-meter predator can drag an elk or a fisherman underwater, why shouldn’t she do this? Especially if she's hungry.

Most taiga and tundra lakes, where such giants can be found, have not been studied. Just because it's unnecessary. And huge pikes are apparently rare. The reason is also simple - to grow to gigantic sizes, a pike must live more than a hundred years.

It is doubtful that several monsters could live in one body of water at once - the ecosystem of even a large lake is unlikely to support two giants. This means that after the death of a monster, at best, a hundred years will pass until another appears. And most likely, much more time will pass - not every pike will be able to live to such an old age.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the rare animal will soon reach scientists. But if you suddenly find yourself in a remote place and start fishing in a dark lake without a source, be careful. Maybe you will see a huge, multi-meter pike and want to catch it for the glory of science. True, if I were you, I would quickly get ashore. Perhaps the monster is swimming to snack on you. But you still won't be able to catch him. Such pike cannot be caught either with a fishing rod or with a spinning rod.

Every fisherman dreams of catching a big, or even better, a giant fish. And some fish dream of catching a fisherman. Such predators live not only in the depths of the sea and tropical rivers, but also in our north.

The vast expanses of Siberia are very convenient to view on a map. This is a continuous green spot, crossed by thin threads of rivers. It abuts the Kamchatka Mountains, the Arctic Ocean and Kazakh steppes. Everything is compact and clear.

In fact, it is difficult to even imagine the vast taiga and tundra - tens of thousands of kilometers of wilderness where no human has set foot. Many areas of Siberia are known only through aerial photography, and even geologists study them, mainly moving along river beds. The local population also prefers to settle along the rivers - the Khanty, Mansi and Yakuts in the center of Siberia, and to the east and north - the Chukchi, Dolgans, Nganasans, Yukaghirs.

Nobody knows what the taiga wilds hide. There are rumors that mammoths and giant spirits similar to primitive people still live here. There are other mysterious creatures, including giant man-eating pikes.

Legends say that these fish can be found in large lakes. According to the Selkups, a pike that has reached a hundred years of age specifically seeks out a deep body of water during river floods and remains there until its death. It is easy to find out the monster’s habitat - such a lake has no source, birds and animals avoid it. The Selkups call these lakes purulto - “black water lakes”, and will never fish or boat here. They are afraid to approach them even in winter, believing that monstrous pikes can break through the ice and feast on a traveler.

The Yakuts tell similar stories. Soviet ethnographer Aleksey Okladnikov recorded a story from one hunter about how a pike ate a young man.

“An old man lived with a guy. One hot day, the deer swam away from the old man to an island on the lake. The guy sat on a birch bark boat and chased the deer so that they would not go far. The old man is sitting at home at this time. Suddenly the water became agitated without wind. A large tail appeared, and a huge pike fish swallowed the guy, capsizing the boat with a large wave. This pike also slammed its mouth shut on the deer. The old man wept bitterly, mourning the death of his son. The next morning, he rode around the entire lake on a deer, trying to find at least the bones of the dead guy.

The old man had an ax in his hands. And suddenly, when he was driving close to the shore, the water, like a mound, became agitated again. A huge pike rushed towards him from the lake. The shore was low and flat. The pike rushed with such enormous force that it remained on the dry bank without reaching the old man. The old man jumped up and killed her with an ax. I cut open her belly and found the bones that were left from the guy; All that was left of the boat were chips. The old man took the jaw of that fish and placed it like a gate on the road that leads from this mountain lake to Lake Syalakh. Everyone drove through these gates without getting off the deer, the jaw was so high and wide.”

The Yakuts and Selkups are separated by many kilometers of impassable swamps and thickets. It is unlikely that they could borrow stories about cannibals from each other. It is even more difficult to believe that the Chukchi learned such stories from them. However, they also talk about huge pikes.

In Vladimir Bogoraz’s magnificent monograph “Chukchi” there is a separate chapter dedicated to monsters. Pike are also mentioned there, which the residents of Kolyma call juutku-naen - “biting fish”. According to legends, giant fish live in distant tundra lakes and hunt people, especially swimmers. They don’t disdain fishermen either.

The Yukaghirs, who live next to the Chukchi, also know giant pikes. They told a story about a fisherman who went to inspect his nets and in the water - on both sides of the shuttle - saw two large yellow eyes, the distance between which was equal to two oars. According to the fisherman, it was a huge pike lying motionless in the water.

Okladnikov heard similar stories from the Yakuts: “We used to see a pike on the lake: its eyes were visible on both sides of the birch bark boat.”

Let's move six thousand kilometers from Kolyma to the west, to Yamal, where there are legends about the wheatgrass - a man-eating fish with horns on its head. Valery Chernetsov, who recorded local legends, believed that the prototype of the monster were huge pikes. A Nenets hunter told him that three men once killed a huge fish in a lake in the Yenisei delta, and in its stomach they found a belt buckle. Sharks are rare in these places. There are no man-eating sharks at all, especially in fresh lakes. Chernetsov believed that it was a huge pike.

Now let's go down south, to the basin of the great Ob, to the Khanty, who believe that the water spirit Sart-lung turns into giant pikes. Werefish live in deep pools and lakes and can easily eat a boat.

By the way, the Khanty consider the pike not a fish, but a beast, which the supreme god Torum created headless, apparently fearing his cruelty. But the pike was not confused and made its own head. She swam along the Ob, swallowing everything that came along the way - a moose, a bear, a woman with a bundle of firewood, a fisherman, a crow. What was eaten became a head.

Having cooked the pike, the Khanty take its skull apart piece by piece, telling the children who the first pike ate. The bones of the pike head really resemble the shapes of figurines of people, animals and birds. In this way, the Khanty not only entertain children, but also instill in them how dangerous the water cannibal is.

The Khanty neighbors also know about the existence of monstrous pikes. The Mansi told folklorists about the yur-sort - a giant lake pike with a thin body and a large head, and about the anten-sort - a four-length horned pike that, on occasion, can eat a person.

Canadian Eskimo legends tell how a giant fish ate two fishermen at once. It happened when three men were swimming across a large lake near Saninayok. Two were sitting in kayaks connected to each other, the third was swimming separately and suddenly heard a loud cry for help. This huge fish attacked the fastened kayaks and swallowed them. The Eskimo realized that it would not be possible to save his comrades, and quickly swam to the shore. The monster started after him. It was moving so fast that it was pushing the waves in front of it, and they were pushing the kayak forward. As soon as the boat touched the shore, the man jumped out and ran away.

The Finnish epic “Kalevala” talks about a pike from the Tuonela River, from whose jaws large kantele harps were made.

The most interesting belief is among the Kalmyks, who believe that in remote steppe lakes there are very old, moss-covered pikes that swallow people and boats. Moreover, on the full moon they crawl ashore and crawl through the fields in search of food, attacking calves and cows.

Tales about giant pikes are very widespread. It is noteworthy that they speak not just about cannibal fish, but specifically about pikes. This is hardly accidental. In addition to pikes, there are many other monsters in mythology, including cruel water spirits. Why not attribute troubles and disasters to them? Why attribute them to fish, and not taimen or, for example, catfish, but specifically pike?

So the stories have a basis in reality? Why are giant pikes not found anywhere except in folklore? That's the thing, they meet. The same ethnographers repeatedly saw the remains of monstrous pikes.

One of the old, pre-revolutionary researchers of Siberian peoples, N. Grigorovsky, wrote in his work “Essays on the Narym Region” that giant pikes are actually found “in these remote places where no human has ever set foot.” He said that in the forest “near the village of Ketsky,” the lower jaw of a pike the length of a horse’s head, nailed to a tree, hung for a long time. By the way, according to him, local residents called the jaws of pikes sleds, which also indicates their considerable size.

Soviet scientists also saw huge remains. Ethnographers Vladislav Kulemzin and Nadezhda Lukina in one of their books mention a pike jaw nailed to the wall of a Khanty hut. The jaw had such teeth that fishermen hung raincoats and padded jackets on them.

My great-grandfather, who lived on the Don, during a big flood saw a huge pike in a water meadow near a haystack, looking like an old mossy log. He killed her with a pitchfork and fed her to pigs.

And traveler Anatoly Pankov in “Oymyakon Meridian” spoke about a bulldozer driver who shot a giant pike with a gun. This happened in Yakutia, in the lower reaches of the Indigirka River. The fish was old, covered with algae, green-brown, flabby, like cotton wool. It reached four meters in length. In addition, Pankov brought up another interesting story.

“An employee of the Silannyakhsky state farm, whose center is located on a tributary of the Indigirka, a young, erudite specialist, having learned about my passion for water travel, offered himself as a companion.

- Shall we sail along Silannyakh? – I asked half-jokingly.

– By Silannyakh?! On a canvas kayak? There are such pikes there that they will either puncture your kayak or pull you out of the boat. How many cases have there been of pikes being grabbed by the legs? They are so big – it’s scary to think...”

Biologists do not recognize the existence of giant pikes, much less cannibals. The most they are willing to do is admit that they reach two meters in length. However, what can prevent the pike from growing even larger - after all, it, like most fish, grows throughout its life!

The records of ethnographers about jaws that go beyond the recognized sizes of pikes, the legends of various peoples dedicated to pikes indicate that they can indeed reach enormous sizes.

In lakes, no one threatens pikes, especially in lost taiga reservoirs. People rarely come here, there are almost no large predators. True, there is not much food. Perhaps this explains why pikes attack humans. If a four-meter predator can drag an elk or a fisherman underwater, why shouldn’t she do this? Especially if she's hungry.

Most taiga and tundra lakes, where such giants can be found, have not been studied. Just because it's unnecessary. And huge pikes are apparently rare. The reason is also simple - to grow to gigantic sizes, a pike must live more than a hundred years.

It is doubtful that several monsters could live in one body of water at once - the ecosystem of even a large lake is unlikely to support two giants. This means that after the death of a monster, at best, a hundred years will pass until another appears. And most likely, much more time will pass - not every pike will be able to live to such an old age.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the rare animal will soon reach scientists. But if you suddenly find yourself in a remote place and start fishing in a dark lake without a source, be careful. Maybe you will see a huge, multi-meter pike and want to catch it for the glory of science. True, if I were you, I would quickly get ashore. Perhaps the monster is swimming to snack on you. But you still won't be able to catch him. Such pike cannot be caught either with a fishing rod or with a spinning rod.