Common Name: CHAIN PICKEREL

Other Names: PICKEREL, CHAINSIDES, EASTERN PICKEREL

Scientific Name: Esox niger

Origin: Native

Adult Size: Most of the pickerel caught in Maine are age 3-5, at which time they range in length from 14-19 inches. Productive waters grow good numbers of 2-3 pound fish, along with occasional 4 pound fish. The state record, caught in 1992, weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Identification: Pickerel are a member of the pike family. The fish is green with the sides prominently marked by yellow-green areas broken by dark, interconnecting lines resembling the links of a chain. The jaws are elongated containing large, sharp teeth; the large dorsal fin is located way back towards the caudal fin, which is forked.

Chain pickerel are generally distributed throughtout the eastern United States and southern and eastern Canada in quiet, weedy waters.

Chain pickerel represent one of the four most abundant warmwater game fish in Maine.

Chain pickerel are one of the first fishes to spawn after ice-out in the spring.

No nest is prepared, and the adhesive eggs drop to the bottom to cling to whatever they happen to fall upon.

Young pickerel hatch after an incubation period of one or two weeks, depending on the temperature.

The pickerel has earned a well-deserved reputation as predaceous and habitually feeds on other fish.

Adults lie in wait of their prey and capture it in one quick lunge.

Favorite foods of the pickerel are yellow perch, white perch, and minnows.   Pickerel are also known to feed on frogs, snakes, ducklings, mice and muskrats.