4 
PIKES AND PIKE PERCH 25 
The eastern pickerel (/. reticulatus) has a comparatively limited 
natural geographical distribution. It is believed originally to have 
been restricted to the fresh waters of the Atlantic seaboard, being 
commonly found everywhere east and south of the Allegheny ’Moun- 
tains from southwestern Maine to Florida. Aided by man, its range 
has been extended throughout the southern half of Maine and even 
farther north into the lower waters of the St. John River, into 
New Brunswick, and elsewhere. It has been reported in Missisquoi 
Bay, in the St. Lawrence River, and in one locality in Lake Ontario. 
The banded pickerel (2. americanus) is somewhat more restricted 
in range, being found only in lowland streams and swamps east of 
the Allegheny “Mountains, from Massachusetts to Florida, the west- 
ernmost record being fr om Escambia River at Flomaton, Ala.’ The 
most. northern locality from which it has been reported is Lake 
Bomoseen, Vt., but it is not known that it is indigenous there. 
The range of the little pickerel (2. vermiculatus) is the valleys 
of the Ohio and Mississippi and streams flowing into the Great 
Lakes,* extending thence southward to the Tennessee, Escambia, 
and White Rivers, and, according to Evermann and Cox,'® to the 
Neuse River on the Atlantic slope. 
WEIGHT 
The muskellunge has been said to reach a weight of 100 pounds or 
more,!! but the maximum weight is probably “not often above 80 
pounds and the average not over 25 or 30 pounds. The pike varies 
from 5 to 50 pounds in weight. In the larger lakes of Canada it 
attains a weight of 35 pounds or more. In the Lake St. John region 
it sometimes “attains a weight of 20, 30, and even 40 pounds. One 
was taken in Lake Tschotogama in 1890, which weighed 49 pounds, 
and another in 1891 of 47 pounds. Forbes ® stated that the average 
weight of the pike in Illinois waters is not over 5 pounds, but a 
specimen weighing 2614 pounds was reported by Doctor Jordan to 
have been caught | in the Kankakee, and Tomlin * wrote that speci- 
mens have been taken in Michigan and along the bays connecting 
with the north shore of Lake Superior that weighed as high as 20) 
pounds. Eastern pickerel weighing as high as g pounds have been 
authentically reported, but such size is uncommon and fishes ac- 
counted large will not usually exceed half that weight. Two and 
three pound pickerel are about the average in waters of ordinary 
suitability to the fish. However, bodies of water differ in respect 
to their suitability, and in some the largest fish will not exceed a 
pound while in others much larger fish are common. The banded 
packerell rarely exceeds a foot in length or a pound in weight. Her- 


7See Note 7 on preceding page. 
§ The Maskalonge of the Ohio Basin. By Tarleton H. Bean. Transactions, American 
Fisheries Society, pp. 145-151. Appleton, 1902. 
®The Fishes of Illinois. By Stephen Alfred Forbes and Robert Earl Richardson. 
Natural History Survey of Illinois, Psiate Laboratory of Natural History. The pikes, 
pp. 205-209. Danville, 1908, 
10 History and Present State of Ichthyology of New Brunswick. By Philip Cox. Bul- 
letin, Natural History Society of New Brunswick, No. XIII, pp. 62-75. St. John, 1896. 
The Fishes of North and Middle America. By David Starr Jordan and Barton 
Warren Evermann. Bulletin, United States Museum, No. 47, pt. 1. (The pikes, pp. 
624-630.) Washington, 1896. 
“The Fishes of Illinois. By Stephen Alfred Forbes and Robert Earl Richardson. 
Natural History Survey of Illinois, State Laboratory of Natural History. (The pikes, 
pp. 205-209.) “Danville, 1908. 
18The Pike. By W. David Tomlin. Jn American Game Fishes, pp. 367-880. Chicago 
and New York, 1892. sj 
