THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



known by the fact that both cheeks and gill-covers are 

 fully covered icith scales, and that is all you need to 

 remember for identification. If other arrangement, 

 you may have a young great pike or even muskel- 

 lunge. Pay no attention to the matter of color and 

 spotting. As the habits of the three pickerels are 

 practically identical and the method of angling for 

 one is the method to be employed for all, henceforth 

 in this chapter I will write of pickerel as though there 

 were but one species. 



The pickerel is essentially a river fish, though he 

 may be taken from shallow, weed-infested ponds. He 

 is not a lover of overly deep water or cold streams. 

 Like the great pike, spawning early in spring, as soon 

 as the ice goes out you will find him making his way 

 upstream or seeking out the shallows close inshore for 

 spawning purposes. As the pickerel and great pike 

 spawn at the. same time, there is a possibility of a 

 cross or hybrid (see appendix). Spawning accom- 

 plished, the fish takes up the even tenor of its way, 

 lying in wait amid weeds and rushes or habituating 

 itself in a reedy or rooty pool, from which it can dash 

 in pursuit of some luckless minnow, mouse, or frog. 

 Indeed, like all members of the Esox family, anything 

 that can satisfy hunger is grist for its mill. None of 

 the pickerels are as solitary in their habits as are the 

 great pike and muskellunge. Once locate a "pickerel 

 hole," and it is almost a safe bet that the understand- 

 ing angler can take all of the little fish he desires. Yet 

 one must proceed with considerable circumspection, 

 for the fish is more wary than the uninitiated imagine. 



The western fish, small in size, is not so much sought 

 after by anglers, though the eastern pickerel, ranging 



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