Dead or alive — does a pike care?

Far less than most predators. Pike are committed scavengers: a fresh-dead fish on bottom is a zero-effort, full-calorie meal, and pike take them readily enough that dead-baiting is the dominant trophy technique in whole countries. The preference shifts with temperature — cold water tilts strongly toward dead or barely-moving baits as chase economics collapse, while warm-water pike hit moving prey more readily. One honest nuance: pike strongly prefer fresh-dead over rotten; they are scavengers, not vultures, and a washed-out old bait mostly catches nothing.

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