One thing I should note is that equipment and knowledge has changed considerably since my pike days. Welfare of the fish is now of utmost importance. Here is a really well written article on handling pike.
http://muskyontario.com/releasingmusky.html.The other thing I didn't think about when I posted above was use of a gaff, if you should choose to use one. Especially when watching salt water fishing shows, where a gaff is used, they impale the fish with the gaff. When I was still regularly pike fishing, our gaffs did not have sharp hooks. The end was rounded, and not at all sharp. They were also bent completely differently. Our goal was to get the fish close to the boat, or shore, and slide the gaff from the back of the gill plate so that the gaff hook came out of the mouth without injuring the gills.
