RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGLING, AND KISH CULTURE. 58 1 



ing 23 inches in length. Other adult fish caught measured 12, 17, 18, 20X, and 20^4" 

 inches, the majority being not much overafoot in length. (See Table X, p. 594.) Young 

 pickerel ranged from 2 to 10 inches in length. The smallest observed were collected on 

 July 15, measuring 2, lyi, and 2^ inches in total length. Young were fairly common 

 throughout the season, but there was a complaint that it was a poor season owing to the 

 high water and hot weather. It was a fact that no large fish could be caught on a hook 

 until toward the last of August and first of September. Even then the scarcity and 

 small size of the fish were quite noticeable and in strong contrast to some 20 years previous. 



The pickerel spavras in spring in shallow water among water plants, brush, or 

 rocks. Its eggs are in long gelatinous masses or strings, and the newly hatched fish are 

 so tiny as to be almost or quite invisible in the water. But they grow comparatively 

 rapidly, yet owing to the small size of the fry they do not appear to reach a length of much 

 over 2 or 3 inches and some of them not even that much in the first season. The pick- 

 erel deposits a good many eggs. If it did not it would soon succumb to its numerous 

 enemies to which the young are exposed in shallow water. About its only protection is 

 its quickness of movement and its color when among the water plants. 



When feeding, the adult pickerel will eat almost any living thing that it can secure, 

 and will secure anything that moves in its immediate vicinity. It, as a rule, lies under 

 the edges of patches of lily pads or other aquatic vegetation, alongside of a submerged 

 tree or log or a bowlder, whence it darts forth and grabs its prey. Its food consists 

 largely of other fishes, frogs, and such other aquatic animals as it may be able to obtain. 

 Very small young subsist upon small insects, entomostracans, and insect larvae. As 

 they increase they take larger objects, often those that are greatly disproportionate to 

 their own size. Observations upon the food of pickerel in 1905 revealed that young up to 

 about 4 inches long were feeding upon entomostracans and insect larvae. Of eight young 

 from 4>:i' to 6 J^ inches long caught at the same time and in the same place, six contained 

 fish and four of these were young pickerel. Of another lot, a 4>^-inch fish had another 

 ickerel 3 inches long in its intestinal tract; one, 5js inches long contained a pickerel 3 

 inches long; another, ^Y% inches in length had, besides other things, one pickerel 21^ 

 inches long; still another, 7fi inches in length contained two small minnows; and one 

 (iY% inches long had in its stomach one pickerel 3 inches long and one shiner {Notemi- 

 gonus) 1% inches long. On another occasion each of two, 7J-2 and 12 inches long, con- 

 tained a I ^^ -inch hornpout and one of them the head of a small chub besides. Each of 

 five fish taken off B Point in a gill net contained partly digested suckers. Other instances 

 were: One, 7^2 -inch pickerel had the head of a small chub; a 9^^-inch fish contained a 

 2-rg- inch pickerel; one, about 20X inches long, contained the bones of a small fish. 



The pickerel is reputed to be one of the most voracious of fishes, but it is no more so 

 than the majority of so-called predacious fishes. Like other fishes, it abstains from food 

 for considerable periods, and it does not always feed at any time of day. Indeed, it is 

 rarely that it feeds during the interval between morning and evening. It is a recognized 

 fact that during the summer months, excepting on cloudy or rainy days, the early morning 

 and evening are the best times for pickerel fishing. The pickerel thrives best in shallow, 

 comparatively warm waters, where there are plenty of water plants and the plenteous 

 food incident to such places. In winter it often seeks somewhat deeper waters, and the 

 large fish frequently affect bold rocky shores. The adult pickerel is not much of a wan- 



