150 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



In its general form the pickerel resembles a 

 small pike, though it is more slender, has a larger 

 eye, and its coloration is quite different. The 

 ground color is either olive-brown or some shade 

 of green, the sides with a golden lustre, and the 

 belly white. The sides are marked with many 

 dark lines and streaks, mostly oblique and hori- 

 zontal, forming a kind of network. There is a 

 dark vertical bar below the eye; the dorsal fin is 

 plain; the lower fins sometimes reddish; the 

 caudal fin occasionally has a few dark spots or 

 blotches. 



In its habits of feeding and spawning it is 

 similar to the pike, spawning in the early spring. 

 It is found in weedy ponds in the North, and in the 

 quiet, grassy reaches of southern streams. It feeds 

 mostly on small fishes and frogs. It grows to a 

 foot in length, usually, sometimes to two feet and 

 weighing seven or eight pounds, though its usual 

 maximum weight is three or four pounds. 



In the New England states it is regarded by 

 many as not only a fine game-fish, but an excel- 

 lent food-fish as well. Others despise it on both 

 counts, and there you are. To many a Yankee 

 boy fishing for pickerel was the highest ideal of 

 angling, but with the larger experience of mature 



