The American pickerel (Esox americanus) is a medium-sized species of North American freshwater predatory fish belonging to the pike family. The genus Esox is placed in the family Esocidae (in the order Esociformes).
Two subspecies are sometimes recognised:
- Redfin pickerel, sometimes called the brook pickerel, E. americanus americanus Gmelin, 1789;
- Grass pickerel, E. americanus vermiculatus Lesueur, 1846.
Lesueur originally classified the grass pickerel as E. vermiculatus, but it is now considered a subspecies of E. americanus.
There is no widely accepted English common collective name for the two E. americanus subspecies; "American pickerel" is a translation of the French systematic name brochet d'Amérique.
Description
The two subspecies are very similar, but the grass pickerel lacks the redfin's distinctive orange to red fin coloration. The former's fins have dark leading edges and amber to dusky coloration. In addition, the light areas between the dark bands are generally wider on the grass pickerel and narrower on the redfin pickerel. Record size grass and redfin pickerels can weigh around and reach lengths of around . Redfin and grass pickerels are typically smaller than chain pickerels, which can be much larger.