grass-pickerel
Species Facts

Science Name: Esox americanus vermiculatus
Other Names: Little pickerel, barred pickerel, mud pickerel, slough pike, pickerel
Description

Species overview: The grass pickerel subspecies could be mistaken for the redfin, if their ranges were not so distinct. The grass pickerel is distributed throughout the Mississippi River watershed. The redfin is an East Coast fish. Where their ranges cross along the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Florida, the two small pickerel interbreed. In Pennsylvania, grass pickerel are found in northwestern Pennsylvania, in both the Lake Erie and Allegheny River watersheds, especially where the land has been glaciated. The grass pickerel’s subspecies name “vermiculatus” means “wormlike,” describing the wavy markings on the fish’s sides.

Identification: Grass pickerel rarely grow over 12 inches long, so an adult grass pickerel could be mistaken for an immature northern pike or muskellunge, except for the scaling that covers its cheeks and gill covers. Grass pickerel are usually not as distinctly marked as redfins, and they do not have a red tinge to their fins. The sides and back are greenish to grayish, and the flanks have lighter, dusky streaks that curve and tend to be vertical. The streaks may look like bars or just shadowy, wandering lines. Grass pickerel have a black bar beneath the eyes, which trails slightly backward. The fins are amber or dusky with no markings.

Habitat: Grass pickerel live in the marshy areas of lakes and ponds, as well as in slow-flowing sections or backwaters of clear streams. They are usually found in and around dense, rooted aquatic vegetation over a soft, silt bottom.

Life history: Grass pickerel scatter their adhesive eggs over underwater plants, when water temperatures in the spring rise to the low 50s, generally April. They may also spawn in the fall, but the survival of the fry is probably very low, and they may occasionally hybridize with northern pike. With its small size, the grass pickerel eats few fish, but feasts instead on invertebrates, aquatic insects, crayfish and other crustaceans.