Pike or Musky?

[Adam]

Hey everyone, Thought i post this question to see what a general opinons might be. I have fished this lake above north eastern lake ontario for 17 years for pike and have never caught a musky or anyone i know. But this picture of my uncle Rick, my two brothers and me has me asking the question if my uncle Rick is holding a musky. It appears to have a clearer body and vertical bars near the tail. The picture was taken on a polaroid camera so the resolution is not the greatest. Hoping that this can confirm or deny that existance with your opinions, all are welcome. Thank you, Adam (far left).

[Adam]

I for got to add that the picture was taken about 15 years ago, no muskys have been caught since.

[THE TRADESMEN]

Very hard to tell from the photo Adam. There are a lot of Musky Pic's around here. If you have the original You would be the best judge of wether it is a musky.

[zach]

my guess is a small pike. very easily could be wrong. if it was 55" i think we coud get a better idea of what it was.

[NitroMusky]

I say pike. two reasons:

1) look closely at the stripes near the tail of the fish on the right. that one IS a pike and matches the stripes on the fish in question

2) fin color: its dark like that of a pike (again like the other two) rather than a reddish color of a muskie.

My guess is that the ligher color on the center fish is just overexposure in the pic from light reflection off the fish slime.

[Chautauqua Tony]

The color of the fins are too green. Also the appear to be pointed. Musky are more rounded at the ends.

[Waylander The Green]

I cant tell from the picture but that looks like a relatively small body of water, if that is the case pike and musky cant coexist for any reasonable length of time in such a small area. Eventually the pike will drive the musky out. Just thought that might add another clue for the puzzle.

Waylander

[Adam]

Yeah the lake itsn't really too big, but its more of a chain of lakes, about 4 large moderatly deep (a little more that 50 ft deep) lakes with many smaller bodies of water joined through swampy channels. Some of the lakes have different species of fish that are not found in the others, i'm guessing that the systems are partially separated. One location has walleye where all the others do not. One lake has only bass and sunfish with no pike. Most of the people that come in are here for the good bass fishing seeing as the lakes are only moderatly pressured due to rough terrain making the lake unaccsiable to anybody who doent want take a chance at ruining there truck or boat. Most of the travellers here are from New York, my old friends come up from Rochester annually. My thought on this was that maybe there used to be native pike or musky in the lake before the other was introduced. My best thoughts are now that its got to be a pike or a fluke of nature which i will probably never know.