Hey everyone! Long time no see.

Caught this yesterday and I’ve gotten conflicting answers from buddies and other people online. Majority are saying musky but others say pike.

What do you think?

Musky.

I compared shape of fins to both species and musky fits.

Here's a pike. Notice rear two fins upper and lower are rounded?

Now look at same fins on a musky and compare to your fish. Shows corners rather than rounded.

From my comparison, your fish shows the same corners rather than rounded for lack of better descriptive words.

Also those same fins on your fish shows dots that also match the musky. So I am seeing at least 2 distinct characteristics to make a quick uneducated guess.

I say musky based on visual comparison. If wrong, won't be the first time- and the "Florida argument is irrelevant" since we don't have those around here. But I bet they are fun to catch. Nice fish!

The coloration patterns say Musky to me.

The color, patterning, and pointed tail fins are a dead giveaway. Pure strain muskie.

The only debate on this fish is Muskie or Tiger Muskie. Certainly not a pike. I agree with the gentlemen above and say it’s a pure muskellunge

13 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

The only debate on this fish is Muskie or Tiger Muskie.

It's not a tiger.

Tigers look like this:

That's a 38" my friend Jeff from Red Cedar Fly Fishing caught in a local river last November.

I was on the oars, and told him to chuck a cast at a mid-river log...and boom...

Musky. Brian.

Tigers have the pattern of a pure strain muskie combined with the color of a pike - more of a greenish hue. They also have rounded tail fins as apposed to pointed ones.

The one that @Further North posted is a really good example. Stunning color and pattern on that fish. Also, they don't grow nearly as big as a pure strain either. A 40 incher is comparable to a 50 incher in the pure strain class.

Definitely a pure strain muskie. Pike have short squiggly horizontal placed lines while muskie's have a vertical bar design. Musky just below & pike in 2nd pic.