Not the main fish,I guess the main fish in my area are roach and bream. The main predator is the european perch,but they wil only grow to about 22inches.
I live in Friesland,the most northern state of The Netherlands,Nearly all the waterways in this state are connected,making it one big waterway.
Pikes are native and common within these waterways,Biologist estimated that our waterways have probably the most biggest pike population of the world.
Pikes have been caught within these waterways over 1.30m(52inch) and they have found dead pikes over 1.60m(64inch),just recently the local newspaper reported about a dead pike found 2km from my home measuring 1.42m(57inch).
But due to the large population of pikes,it's really difficult to locate and catch these old monsters,most pikes of these size are over 15years old and have seen so many lures that they simply won't bite. The younger ones haven't learned the routine and are the easiest ones to catch but as they grow in size there ''intillegence'' also grows.
The large population of pike also means tourism and people come from around the world to fish for pike in these waterways,so in other to catch pikes above the 1M(40inch) mark,you simply have to find waters that are not really populair fishing spots and you should have to try to keep it this way.
The small village I went last sunday is one of those places most fishermen have never heared of,but its absolutely monsterterritory.
This also comes with a problem,because of the low-amount of fishermen on these waters there aren't many policeboats out monitoring.
This makes free way for poachers,who use rods,nets and electricity to kill large pike and zander.