Name/Relations || Range/Sizes || Habitat & Habits ||  Notes

Common Name: Chain Pickerel
Other Common Names:
Scientific name: Esox niger
Family: Esocidae (Pikes)
Related Species:  Redfin Pikerel, Grass Pikerel, Northern Pike

Sizes:  Up to 11 lbs possible, common 1lb-3lbs
 
 

Habitat:   Prefer weedy, clearer, lakes and rivers, and likes to feed and inhabit shallow flats with aquatic vegitation and cover, especially if it is near deeper cooler water.  60-75 degrees F preference.

Spawning Habits:  Like other pikes and pickerels it spawns in early spring (just after ice-out in some areas) over 1-4foot deep water with vegitation covered bottoms.  Males and females swim together in large groups and the fertilized eggs are simply dropped and abandoned on the bottom.  In optimum areas, this fish and other pickerels can spawn additionally in the summer/fall.  Commonly hybridizes with other pickerels.

Feeding Habits:  While very small pickerels are omnivourous, anything over 8" is a viscous minnow eater.  They like to hide under logs and in vegitation or under lillypads in shallow water, then dart out and pounce on any fish they can catch and swallow.  They will also stalk schools of minnows in packs of 1-6 fish  during early morning and evening in deeper areas near the shallow areas they usually inhabit. In time of hot weather, they also school and head for deeper water structure, feeding as they move.
 
 

Notes:  Like other pickerels, they are a fun light tackle fish that is very adaptable and can keep tabs on overpopulating sunfish, without becoming a menace to larger gamefish.  They are a little bony but very edible.  My favorite trick is to wade into shallow bays off of larger lakes, and cast 3" plugs, spinners, spoons, poppers, or especially twitch baits very close to logs and downed trees in 1 foot of water, then quickly twitch the lure.  The strike is explosive and quick, and the same structure will produce several smaller fish or a few larger ones.  Very large pickerel are easy to confuse with Northern Pike or Muskellunge, and share many of the same habits.  P.S. to limit bite offs, leader your lures with 4" of 20lb mono!