Dear anonymous,
"Flap around" and "out of the water longer than is necessary" and "warmer months"...? Where does it say that about the above fish?
This fish was handled with utmost care, out of the water for about 20-30 seconds resting calmly on a weed bed about 2 feet from the water in the autumn and swam away with splashing vigour once I released it. Trust me, it was not harmed.
You are not the first person to question the robustness of pike, and I would like again to ask for some documentation of the fact that pike are more delicate than most other fish - apart from the fact that the sheer weight of large pike makes certain considerations necessary.
As you can read in my article elsewhere on landing and releasing pike, I generally consider pike a tough fish, which can endure a bit of handling. I do NOT recommend handling the fish for more than mere seconds in or out of the water, but specimen anglers have told me that pike can survive for very long periods rolled into a damp carp mat or kept in shallow water in a keep net.
Now, I do NOT endorse or recommend such treatment of any fish, but it just tells me that the few seconds that my pike are usually out of the water and the way that I handle them will hardly do them any harm.
Again: please refer me to some documentation that says otherwise and I will revise my way of doing things and writing about them.
Martin
