Fishing Forum

[cool]As a kid the Pickerel was my favorite to fish.

What do they look like?

Pickerels are generally thin-looking fish. They have large, strong jaws, that have plenty of fierce teeth. Their fins are all about the same size, and their dorsal fins are near their tails on the tops of their bodies. Pickerels look a lot like Pike fish. The main difference is that pickerels have more scales. Pickerels scales extend all across their gill covers, while pikes have scales only on the upper half of their gill covers. Pickerels can grow anywhere from a foot long and under five pounds, to a hefty five-feet long and about 60 pounds.



How do they behave?

These fish are sneaky when it comes to finding food. Pickerels will startle their prey when they least expect it. They'll hide out generally in weeds or other aquatic vegetation, remaining still and silent, until they find a fish they want to eat for dinner. Pickerels are quite fast, and once they see their prey, they'll waste no time darting into them and gnawing their teeth into the prey. Pickerels will eat any of a variety of sea creatures. They like small crawfish and minnows, as well as birds, snakes, and large fish.



What should you know about them?

These fish are loners. You'll rarely see them with other pickerels. After all, their main objective in hunting is to be unseen. And, of course, the best way to do that is to swim alone and fight for yourself.


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That is a nice looking pickerel. They strongly resemble the Northen Pike but they do have their differences. That is a good article.
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[] Did you know that in Canada , the walleye is concidered a pickeral , and the pike is called a jackfish !

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I've heard that the Pickeral and Northern Pike are the same fish, just different name. What's the difference?
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[cool][#800000][size 2]Hey there DrownedDesertRat,[/size][/#800000]

[#800000][size 2]Sorry they are not the same fish. As my post noted the difference is in the scaling of the two fish.[/size][/#800000]
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Good Article Dryrod, thanks
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now thats info i didn't know !

i used to fish for pickrel as a kid in maine , cought tons of them !
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Even on our fishy icons, we have the chain pickeral and northern pike at two different levels.
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i thought it was just size and markings , i didn't realise the scales were different .[blush]
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there is a big difference.[cool]
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Hey there Dryrod,

If a pack of pickerel picked people to peck how many...... Ah never mind. In my search for fishy names I too was suprised at the loose way in which the 'pickerel' word was used! Up there in the northern states, even a poor innocent little walleye is nicknamed some kind of pike and vise versa some muskelunge are called pike! I've heard of a bunch of names that describe the same fish but subspecies. Pickerel, Chain Pickerel and the list goes on.

JapanRon
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