Muskie or Pike

It's still a pike here is a picture of a hybrid "tiger" musky caught this week 

Pike.  

Tiger Musky to me it looks like...Never seen a pike that size with the markings like that, but that's just my opinion...

Here's another pic....

Looks like a pike to me.  Just appears to have some unique markings for a pike that big.

That fish looks to be a bit past the juvenile stage of it's life.  But I agree that its a cool looking fish.  You can also sometimes tell species by the number of pores on the underside of the fish's jaw.  Not sure how well that works for hybrids though.

On those juvenile fish the markings can be confusing.  I've seen plenty of juvenile muskies that people think are hybrids or even pike but they've been tagged so the DNA on them point back to being a pure strain muskie.  Then a year or two later when they've matured and have been re-caught they exhibit the markings of a definite muskie.  

Essentially...on juvenile fish it's not a sure bet to determine what they are based simply on markings, fin structure, etc. You'd need to do DNA sampling on a fish that age which isn't possible.  Just chalk it up to catching a pretty fish that some day could produce other pretty fish if it's released and survives.  

Thx guys....it appears to me it is a hybrid also. 

Pike 

The fins look like they are rounded on the ends. I also go with pike. Muskys tail fin is more pointy on the tips. But like Bugle Trout said, it may be a hybrid.

Tiger.