Fish o' the Day - chain pickerel

A fish of my youth, and one that I haven't seen much of lately.... The chain pickerel, Esox niger, is one of several North American members of the Family Esocidae, commonly known as the pike family. The common name comes from the chain-like pattern on their sides. The larger members of the family, the northern pike and the muskellunge, are more northerly species, although muskies have been introduced in the Tennessee and Tallapoosa River drainage systems. Down here, we have Esox niger and a smaller relation, E. americanus.

Chain pickerel like relatively clear lakes and streams with abundant aquatic vegetation. They're ambush predators, hanging almost motionless near weedy edges, head facing open water, while they wait for small fish to swim by. They're piscivorous for the most part, although they'll take pretty much anything they can catch.

As a kid, I used to catch chains routinely - down in the Florida panhandle we called them jackfish. They always reminded me of a freshwater barracuda, not only with the elongate body and mouthful of impressive teeth, but with their ambush style of feeding as well.

We don't get many pickerels in our Sumter County sampling. When we do, they tend to be the smaller grass pickerel (Esox americanus). One helpful way of distinguishing them is that, while each has a "teardrop" beneath the eye, that of the chain pickerel tends to be almost vertical while the grass pickerel's slants to the rear.

This summer, we'll be broadening our sampling into some of the oxbows off the Tombigbee - hopefully we'll find chain pickerel there.