Esox americanus
grass pickerel

Esox americanus is found throughout many large river drainages from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast of North America, and from southern Canada to the southern United States. Some of the large Rivers this species is found in are the Mississippi, Ohio, Brazos, and Tennessee Rivers. An Atlantic coast form of the species is found from New York to Georgia and in eastern drainages. Another group, which are intergrades of the two subspecies, are found in the Gulf Coast Drainages in Alabama, Florida and southwestern Georgia.

This species is most often found in clear lakes and slow to moderate running streams, but can also be found in overflow pools and marshes. Their habitat includes dense aquatic vegetation and bottoms with organic matter. The preferred temperature of this fish is 26° C. The highest population densities are found in shallow weedy areas with lots of vegetation including leafy liverworts, water lilies, filamentous algae, pondweeds, and cattails (Wallus, et al., 1990).

This fish is an esocid. It has fully scaled cheeks and gill covers, and the top of the head has few or no scales. A darkened backward slanting vertical bar is present beneath the eyes. The dorsal side is dark green to brown, and the ventral side is cream or yellow. The color patterns on the lateral sides is variable, from a green and white brick wall pattern to forward slanting vertical bars (Mettee, et al., 1996). E. americanus can occasionally grow longer than 12 inches (Florida Fish and Wildlife, 2000).

Young live in schools while adults are solitary, predaceous, and aggressive, only coming together to spawn (Mettee, 1996). (Mettee, O'Neil, and Pierson, 1996)

E. americanus is a predator that as an adult feeds on large insect larvae, crayfishes and other fishes. This fish does not move a great deal to hunt for food. Instead it camouflages itself and waits for unsuspecting prey. When it has the prey located, it will dart out of hiding quickly, grasp the prey and swallow it head first (Mettee, et al., 1990). Newly hatched larvae feed on larvae of later spawning species.

It can be fun to fish for Esox americanus, but because they do not grow very large, they are not popular as a sport fish. The meat from these fish is white, flaky, and sweet, but bony (Florida Fish and Wildlife, 2000).

Esox americanus is a common species with a wide geographic range. It is not threatened or endangered.

There are two subspecies of E. americanus. They are E. americanus americanus, commonly known as the redfin pickerel, and E. americanus vermiculatus, known better as the grass pickerel. These subspecies are very similar and do breed together where their ranges overlap. Redfin pickerel live to six years, and grass pickerel live to seven years (Mettee, 1996).