Many sport fishermen have experienced that topwater lures pike are very effective lures for pike fishing.
Why is that? The answer to it I think , is odds of success for the pike.
When a pike is attacking a school of fish, the odds for success plays a key role. If the prey is in deeper water they have many ways of escape. They can escape by going forwards, downwards, upwards or sideways and all these possibilities make it a lot harder for the pike to catch their food. The odds are also relatively high for a pike to catch a healthy fish.
Pikes are intuitively aware of this and will rarely try to attack a school of fish that swims on the same water level. For example, if the pike succeeds in catching their prey in this way only one out of five times, then the pike will have used a high amount of energy. The pike’s energy levels will then take a longer time to replenish since they are expending more energy than taking in, in the form of food. If a pike hunts in this way, they will be much smaller since little food is left for growth, and it will be a loser in the long run.