This pike didn't eat its prey headfirst

Ben called me into the fish shack this afternoon to show me an unusual sight: a northern pike that had eaten two tulibee or lake herring.
Pike eat tulibee all the time but what made this incident exceptional is that the fish were swallowed tail-first.
Our fishermen report daily about northern pike grabbing the walleye on their lines. In every instance the pike grabs the walleye in the middle and after a bit lets it go and grabs it headfirst. The fins, including the ice pick-like dorsal fin all collapse when swallow headfirst. You can test this yourself by sliding your hand along the fish from head to tail. The fins all flatten. Do it in the reverse direction and the fins flip away from the body and your hand gets stuck.
It is believed that pike prefer soft-rayed fish like suckers and tulibee over spiny-rayed fish like walleye and perch.
That may be true but pike sure attack the walleye on our lines. Maybe they key-in on those fish because they are in distress and can't defend themselves while being reeled into the boat.
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