60 FISHES OF THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 



knoAvn to us in which the pickerel occurs is in Back Lake, a tributary 

 of the Connecticut River. 



The pickerel in some waters attains a weight of 7 pounds, but its 

 average weight is much smaller ; probably 2 or 3 pounds would be the 

 average weight of the general run of large ones. 



The habits of the pickerel are in most respects similar to those of 

 other members of the family, the pike and the muskellunge. It has 

 an unenviable reputation for fierce voracity and destructiveness. In 

 many places it is despised and is almost universally anathematized by 

 anglers and fishculturists. There is scarcely a body of water in which 

 trout once lived and where pickerel now occur that the depletion of the 

 trout has not been ascribed to the pickerel. In many instances the 

 fish has undoubtedly been unjustly maligned. It is true that it will eat 

 other fish if it can get them — there are few fish that will not do this. 

 The highly esteemed and much-lauded trout and salmon are of the 

 same sort, and the lunge rather than the pickerel should have the 

 appellation of " fresh-water shark." During most of the year the 

 pickerel resorts to waters uncongenial to trout, and at all times it pre- 

 fers such waters. A warm, muddy pond or stream Avith j^rofuse 

 grow^th of aquatic vegetation is its favorite abode ; trout can not exist 

 long in such surroundings. In weedy waters where trout manage to 

 exist, pickerel also will thrive, but trout will lie in the cooler, clearer 

 portions while pickerel seek the water plants and shallow water. In 

 most instances it would seem that the pickerel is not the whole, though 

 possibly an accessory cause, of the disappearance of trout, and that 

 the harm done by the pickerel is overestimated. The injurious effect 

 of pickerel upon trout and salmon is more often indirect than 

 direct, especially when it appears in congenial waters where trout or 

 salmon are barely maintaining themselves or are decreasing. The 

 indirect influence is upon the food supply, and this reverts upon the 

 pickerel itself ultimately. It is an almost invariable rule that pick- 

 erel in time, after a period of increase in number and size, begin to 

 decrease, owing to a diminution of the food supply. The pickerel 

 is a very desirable and worthy game fish in suitable waters, but for 

 reasons already given its indiscriminate distribution is not advised. 

 It eats, and in eating deprives other and better fish of food; a har- 

 mony or balance of natural conditions might by this means be upset. 

 The same may be said of any introduced fish. 



The food of the pickerel is fish and other small aquatic animals. 

 The young feed upon insects and the aquatic larvse of insects. It 

 spawns in the spring and early summer, but we are unacquainted with 

 its spawning habits. 



As a game fish the pickerel is highly esteemed by many. It will 

 not always bite, the most attractive lure being often regarded with 

 contempt and immobility. Then, again, it will voraciously strike at 



