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Redfin pickerel
Esox americanus
Photo credit:
Karsten
Hartel
Habitat requirements and life history:
The redfin pickerel, a native species, is the chain pickerel's
smaller relative that is identified by it reddish fins and
a tear drop bar that angles backward. Redfin pickerel inhabit
slow streams, beaver ponds, and swamps with abundant submerged
vegetation. They may leave streams to enter flooded swamps
to forage in water only an inch or two deep. Like the chain
pickerel, refin pickerel spawn early in the year, usually
right after the ice melts. Females, attended by one or more
males, broadcast their eggs in shallow water over submerged
vegetation. Young pickerel feed on insects at first, but when
they reach about 3 inches in length, they begin eating other
fish, which is their principal food. They are small but voracious
feeders that detect prey visually, and then catch it with
a sudden, short rush. (Sources:
Massachusetts Wildlife, No. 2, 2000, Special Fishing Issue,
Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, &
Delaware and AMC Guide to Freshwater Fishing in New England)
Total length: <
12 inches
Pollution tolerance (US EPA): Intermediate
tolerance
Classification:
Macrohabitat generalist
Number of fish found during 1954 & 2001
Fish Surveys*
| Location |
No. of Fish 1954 |
No. of Fish 2001 |
| Assabet River |
285 |
61 |
| Assabet Brook |
|
2 |
| Cold Harbor Brook |
15 |
|
| Elizabeth Brook |
|
7 |
| Forth Meadow Brook |
4 |
3 |
| Great Brook |
25 |
3 |
| Guggins Brook |
|
43 |
| Hop Brook |
16 |
|
| Mill Brook |
|
7 |
| Nagog Brook |
|
4 |
| Nashoba Brook |
102 |
|
| Spencer Brook |
4 |
15 |
| Stirrup Brook |
3 |
|
| UNT Assabet River |
|
3 |
| Total |
454 |
148 |
*Data sources:
Schlotterbeck, L.C. and W.A. Tompkins, 1954. "A Fisheries
Investigation of the Merrimack and Ipswich River Drainages."
Bureau of Wildlife Research and Management, Massachusetts Division
of Fisheries and Game.
DFW, 2001. Assabet Watershed Fish Survey. MA Department of Fisheries
and Wildlife, Westborough, MA.
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