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Little Pickerel; Grass Pike
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The grass pike occurs abundantly throughout the middle and upper Mississippi Valley and in streams tributary to Lakes Erie and Michigan. It is not known from east of the Alleghanies nor from Texas. Throughout most of its range it is generally common in all ponds, bayous and small sluggish streams, preferring those waters in which there is much aquatic vegetation. It rarely exceeds a foot in length which precludes it being more than a boy's fish.
Br. 11 to 13; scales 105. Colour, green or grayish; side with many curved streaks, sometimes forming bars, but more usually marmorations or reticulations, the colour extremely variable, sometimes quite plain; sides of head usually variegated; a dark bar downward and on forward from the eye; base of caudal sometimes mottled; other fins usually plain.