PIKE FAMILY (Esocidae) 



Chain Pickerel 



Esox niger LeSueur 



Chain pickerel are generally distributed throughout eastern United 

 States and southern and eastern Canada in quiet weedy waters. They 

 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 with mature adults migrating into swampy or marshy back- 

 water areas. Females are usually attended by several males and there 

 is a great deal of splashing and lashing of their tails as the eggs are 

 spawned and fertilized. No nest is prepared, and the adhesive eggs drop 

 to the bottom to cling to whatever they happen to fall upon. There is 

 no parental care. Young pickerel hatch after an incubation period of 

 one or two weeks depending on the temperature. Small pickerel may 

 be observed throughout the summer in shallow areas near shore. 



The pickerel has earned a well-deserved reputation as a predaceous 

 fish with an undisputed piscivorous diet. Adults are solitary feeders ly- 

 ing motionless in wait for their prey and then capturing it in one quick 

 lunge. Yellow perch, white perch, and minnows are important food of 

 pickerel in Maine. These are fishes with which the pickerel is eco- 

 logically associated. Other interesting, but less important and infrequent 

 items of diet, include frogs, snakes, ducklings, mice, and muskrats. 



The largest pickerel on record was 36 inches in length and weighed 

 10 pounds and 10 ounces. Following are some ages and average lengths 

 of chain pickerel taken in Maine: 



68 



