Grass Pickerel

[MuskieBait]

"In this study Grass Pickerel was significantly positively correlated (α=0.1) with Bog Willow (Salix pedicellaris), Broad-leaved Arrowhead (Sagittiria latifolia), Common Cattail (Typha latifolia), Duckweed (Lemna spp.), White Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata) and Burweed (Sparganium spp.). They are also significantly positively correlated (α=0.1) with Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides) and Brook Silverside (Labidesthes sicculus). Grass Pickerel is also positively correlated with young of the year (α=0.1)."

Note the type of vegetation the Grass Pickerel were associated with...

Details, details...this is where you need to pay attention, notice the fine details, and read between the lines...

Also note the type of baitfish they are correlated with...small prey species...

Their data came from 149 seines. A total of 13,483 individuals were caught...of which 22 were Grass Pickerel. Seem like a really tall order, huh?

But when you look further at the type of vegetation were the seines were found (or set)...Bog Willow (4 seines), Broad Leaf Arrowhead (10), Common Cattail (5), Duckweed (65...which we'll ignore since Duckweed is really common), White Water Lily (61...which we'll ignore too), and Burweed (2)...with really strong correlation...although the author appropriately caution the reader that the strong correlation could be due to low sampling of sites where these vegetation occurred...but still...what does that tell you?

If you want to find Grass Pickerel on this lake, find areas that has Bog Willow + Common Cattail + Burweed...and your likelihood of finding them may very well increase.

You could potentially narrow your search to just a handful of sites...instead of all 150 of them...and 22 Grass Pickerel sampled from 4-5 sites...the fish density doesn't look so terrible after all.

"They are also found with Emerald Shiner and Brook Silverside which are likely prey items. They have an affinity with areas that are rich in young of the year, which also may be areas that provide prey. "

Like I said...shallow, boggy water...too shallow for bigger predators...but good enough for the small Grass Pickerel.

Just gotta breakdown all that data and info into something you can use...and helps you to focus your search

I don't want to discourage you...but the water where I fish for Grass Pickerel, over 2000 had been sampled in the past 5 years...one sampling area had over 100 sampled.

Your search will be tough...but if you know where to look, you could be successful too. This is the amount of attention and work I put in to search for species. A lot of time, I spend more time searching and reading sampling report than I actually go fishing. Since I've been fishing almost every weekend, you can just imagine the amount of "spare time" I put in to read about my target species. In between lab work, during lunch, after dinner...I usually have one browser window open with some kind of info on some target species I'm after Catching 391 species is a lot of hardwork...

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(06-26-2014 06:38 PM)Eli Wrote:  Don't bother. They're not catchable.

You must be referring to the River Redhorse Yes, I agree...