Fishing Ol’ Chainsides: Is the Chain Pickerel the Most Underrated Sport Fish in America?

Time and time again, I have this argument with my fishing buddies. Does the chain pickerel (Esox Niger) offer North America’s most underrated sport fishery?

Anybody who has ever fished a truly first class pickerel pond or river probably has a different opinion than those who have just hooked the occasional “jack” when fishing other species. In my local area, there are several holes which routinely produce 2-4 lb chain pickerel, with a fight the likes of which few smallmouth bass have ever put up.

This, however, is in Maine. A pickerel and smallmouth bass fisherman in Maine has one distinct advantage over fisherman of the same species in the rest of the United States. This is that most native fishermen are not after these species and actually consider them “trash fish”. With salmon and trout fisheries as strong as ours are, many large ponds and rivers not known for producing speckled trout or salmon, unbroken for miles will go for weeks at a time without being fished. Is their any denying that a potential state or United States record holding pickerel is out there, somewhere?

The chain pickerel grows quickly to maturity, reaching 12″-14″ in short order, and routinely reach the 24″ and 3-5 lb range. This fish, with it’s big swirling ambushes and water churning fights, can be a joy to fish. Aside from the warmest months of the year, a common strategy for hooking moby pickerel is to cast along weed beds, dragging anything from softbaits to crankbaits to nightcrawlers. The pickerel are often found laying up in the weed bed, looking out into open water waiting for prey. And when the big boys hit, you’ll know it.

Through the ice the chain pickerel offers fast action even when other species seem to be taking a time out. This past winter, during a three day ice fishing derby, my daughter, myself and two friends decided to spend our final day on a lesser fished pond in the outer skirting of the derby region, attempting to land a large fish to place in one of the less crowded species categories, having seen how the salmon and togue leader boards had grown. What a decision that turned out to be!

We used up three dozen shiners, a half-dozen smelts and a handful of dead-mashed smelts into early afternoon, and by three PM were packing up with three fish that were potential winners or place fish in the derby. Two of them ol’ chainsides.

To make a long story short, our single day of fishing on the pickerel pond just to break the monotony of the three day derby produced somewhere around thirty fish, most of them aggressive pickerel in the 1-2 lb category, along with two white perch which made great table fare, and a 3 lb smallmouth that placed second in it’s category. The two largest pickerel we caught also placed, my daughter’s 25″ 3.8 lb monster “jack” placed first in species and also as the heaviest fish landed by a kid under 12. Finally my 22″ 3.2 lb fish placed third in species.

But, away from the hard water, the chain pickerel is also a deep water thrasher in the warmer months. During the summer on another pond where we occassionally “harvest” a few dozen perch for a summer fish fry, the “heavy chains” often come up out of the deep just as we’re bringing a 10″-12″ white perch to the boat. When one of these monsters comes up from the abyss and rips into your catch your eyes will spring open and your heart will race. Usually, these “heavy chains” are fully mature fish laying in the cool deep water, and they will only be caught on sizable bait. These are usually 3-4 lb fish, in the 20″-25″ range and they thrash like champs! Last year on a single perch run, one hot August afternoon, we boated two fish that exceeded four pounds, and one of them we never hooked, but netted as he attempted to to rip a sizable white perch free from my partners hook. That particular pickerel was the second largest I have ever seen landed. The perch was not salvageable, with massive rips down its sides and a large chunk ripped from its belly. How can any fisherman not appreciate a foe like this!

So, the question I pose to the reader, the knowledgeable fisherman or any avid bass or trout fisherman is this; Is there a more underappreciated sport fish in North America than the chain pickerel?

And with the world record holding still for the last 47 years at 9 lbs 6 oz., and many state records hovering around 5-6 lbs, is a record pickerel out there somewhere right now, laying in the weeds, waiting for you?

What do you think?