My limited experience says there are seemingly inhumane ways to treat a NP that my uncle taught me to prevent harm. What keeps them from biting and thrashing is picking them up by the eye sockets. It paralyzes them for the duration, but they appear to recover just fine when released. Otherwise a small baseball bat should be employed to knock them silly, of which they do not always recover.

It sure beats loosing a finger.

We used to catch some large NP and Muskies on the St. Lawrence river, 30+ inches were not unheard of. I don't recall what mine was once, something like 26", and it put up an long fight to land it.

I always thought that pike could take chunks out of their prey, so is mouth gape that important? Granted it is likely much easier for them to swallow something whole than to take chunks out, but I remember frequently reeling in a larger bluegill or perch to find large portions missing. Those damned pike would hand out "in the holes" waiting for an incapacitated fish to eat.