About American Pickerel
Slender and cylindrical, grass and redfin pickerel look much like the chain pickerel, with the same fully scaled cheeks and gill covers. They are dark olive to brown or black above, amber to brassy white below, with 20 or more dark green to brown wavy bars along the sides. Redfin and grass pickerel inhabit primarily sluggish, vegetated waters of pools, lakes, and swamps, and are carnivorous, feeding on smaller fish. Larger fishes, such as the striped bass, bowfin, and gray weakfish, in turn, prey on the pickerels when they venture into larger rivers or estuaries.