Grass Pickerel or Baby Pike

[MuskieBait]

Northern Pike.

There are only a handful of areas in Ontario (I can count with my hands) where Grass Pickerel is found (thus they are a Species At Risk - SAR - due to limited and decreasing habitat). If you are not fishing in those areas (which Six Mile Lake is not from my recollection), you will not find one.

Grass Pickerel is limited to selected shorelines along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and their very few tributaries. There were reports of some in the St. Lawrence River and apparent spreading of the species, but even so, their distribution is extremely restricted.

I did target Grass Pickerel in early summer...but a friend of mine went back to the location last week and that little spot is almost dried up due to the lack of rain this summer. Luckily, it is possible for the fish to escape to a bigger body of water nearby...

Here is the one I caught early summer. Note the black vertical stripe down the eye, the lack of cream-coloured bean shaped spots on the body (Northern Pike), but the vermiculation on the body and the orange colour pectoral, pelvic anal, and caudal (tail) fins to suggest it is a Grass Pickerel. There is also a clearing of patterns along the lateral line of Grass Pickerel, which is disrupted in this fish due to the bite makes on its side.



If a Grass Pickerel was the size of your Northern Pike, it would be a trophy. Most Grass Pickerel are between 6-12 inches long and they don't get much bigger than that. They are one of the smallest (if not the smallest) Exos species.