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Chain Pickerel

 Kenneth S Boone

Chain pickerel are formidable aquatic predators native to almost all of Alabama, including the Lake Martin area, but most people rarely see them.

Shaped like a torpedo and built for fast attacks, chain pickerel have a long body that is just slightly taller than it is wide. This fish is normally about 1 1/2 feet long at maturity, but some individuals have been known to exceed 30 inches long. It has scales on the cheeks and gill covers, but few, if any, scales on top of its head. Just beneath its eye is a nearly vertical dark stripe that runs down its face between its mouth and gills. Its long, hard, narrow snout is sometimes compared to a duck bill. Chain pickerel have a large dorsal fin located close to their tail fin.