DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 



indeed may be said to be the western representative 

 of that fish — and is found in all weedy and sluggish 

 streams throughout its range. It is a small fish, a 

 "boy's fish," seldom attaining greater length than a 

 foot and a weight of a pound or so. Though many 

 anglers affect to despise both these fish, I can enjoy a 

 day with the little fellows if properly equipped, as 

 will hereinafter appear. 



* The eastern pickerel or green pike is something of a 

 fish, under favorable conditions reaching a length of 

 two feet or so and attaining a weight of several pounds. 

 This fish is built more on the lines of a great pike, 

 though the coloration is markedly different. The 

 belly is always white, while the sides are an olive- 

 brown or greenish, with a sort of goldenrod luster. 

 The lower fins are often pink, sometimes almost red. 

 The sides are covered with dark lines and streaks, 

 oblique and horizontal, forming a sort of rough net- 

 work, hence the name sometimes bestowed upon it, 

 "chain pickerel." Of course, reticulatus is never found 

 in the Middle West, so there is little danger of con- 

 fusing it with vermiculatus, if that were possible. 

 Later on when we come to talk of fishing for pickerel, 

 we will class these three fish as one, for the methods 

 used in angling for one may well be employed for all. 

 Undoubtedly more than one-half of the so-called 

 pickerel taken in the Middle West are great pike, the 

 cosmopolite of the family. If, as the fish savants 

 assert, vermiculatus seldom attains a weight much 

 in excess of a pound or two, then the great ma- 

 jority of the "pickerel" caught in the Mississippi 

 Valley are something else; for in my experience the 

 average fish is somewhat heavier. If the angler will 



37 



