Could be you are catching red fin pickerel. the have different markings than a chain pickerel.
Redfin Pickerel Esox americanus americanus
Species overview: The redfin pickerel is the eastern half of the Esox americanus subspecies twins. The other is northwest Pennsylvania’s grass pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus). The redfin’s native range is along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts to Florida. In the Gulf Coast and southeast states, it mixes and interbreeds with the grass pickerel. The redfin is a common small pickerel in the Delaware River watershed in Pennsylvania. It is found rarely in the Susquehanna River watershed. In Pennsylvania, there is no natural overlap in the geographic distribution of these subspecies.
Identification: The redfin, along with the grass pickerel, is the smallest member of the pike family, growing to 12 inches at most. Its range restriction in this state, east of the Allegheny Mountains, is the best way to distinguish it from the grass pickerel. With few exceptions, the two fish are similar in appearance. The redfin pickerel is greenish gray to dark olive-bronze on the back, with shading down its sides. Over the sides are wavy or wormy-looking lighter markings that can appear as a series of vertical, irregular bars. The belly is white or yellow-tinted. The redfin’s cheek and opercle are fully scaled, and the black “tear drop” beneath its eye extends backward. The snout is short and broad and the fins are unspotted and reddish, providing its common name.
Habitat: Redfin pickerel inhabit the weedy shallows of slow-moving streams, as well as lakes and ponds. Although they are usually found over a soft, mud bottom, redfin pickerel prefer the water itself to be clear. They can live in naturally acidic water, like that which flows from the tannic-stained bogs in Pennsylvania’s northeast region. They can tolerate swampy waters with low oxygen content and brackish waters, where fresh water and ocean salt water mix.
Life history: Redfin pickerel spawn in spring, when the water temperature reaches about 50 degrees. The sticky eggs are randomly broadcast in the shallows over underwater vegetation and other organic debris. The eggs, which hatch in about two weeks, receive no parental care. Unlike larger pikes, the redfin does not include fish as a primary part of its diet. Instead, it feeds on small crustaceans, crayfish, aquatic insects and other invertebrates. The small size of redfin pickerel, as well as their restricted shallow-water habitat, may be why so few fish are on their menu.
Grass Pickerel Esox americanus vermiculatus
Species overview: The grass pickerel subspecies could be mistaken for the redfin, if their ranges were not so distinct. The grass pickerel is distributed throughout the Mississippi River watershed. The redfin is an East Coast fish. Where their ranges cross along the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Florida, the two small pickerel interbreed. In Pennsylvania, grass pickerel are found in northwestern Pennsylvania, in both the Lake Erie and Allegheny River watersheds, especially where the land has been glaciated. The grass pickerel’s subspecies name “vermiculatus” means “wormlike,” describing the wavy markings on the fish’s sides.
Identification: Grass pickerel rarely grow over 12 inches long, so an adult grass pickerel could be mistaken for an immature northern pike or muskellunge, except for the scaling that covers its cheeks and gill covers. Grass pickerel are usually not as distinctly marked as redfins, and they do not have a red tinge to their fins. The sides and back are greenish to grayish, and the flanks have lighter, dusky streaks that curve and tend to be vertical. The streaks may look like bars or just shadowy, wandering lines. Grass pickerel have a black bar beneath the eyes, which trails slightly backward. The fins are amber or dusky with no markings.
Habitat: Grass pickerel live in the marshy areas of lakes and ponds, as well as in slow-flowing sections or backwaters of clear streams. They are usually found in and around dense, rooted aquatic vegetation over a soft, silt bottom.
Life history: Grass pickerel scatter their adhesive eggs over underwater plants, when water temperatures in the spring rise to the low 50s, generally April. They may also spawn in the fall, but the survival of the fry is probably very low, and they may occasionally hybridize with northern pike. With its small size, the grass pickerel eats few fish, but feasts instead on invertebrates, aquatic insects, crayfish and other crustaceans.
Chain Pickerel Esox niger
Species overview: Chain pickerel are the most abundant and widely distributed member of Pennsylvania’s pike family. They are also the most often caught, biting the angler’s bait or lure readily. The chain pickerel’s original range was Atlantic and Gulf Coast tributaries, but the fish has been introduced elsewhere. In Pennsylvania, chain pickerel are restricted to the Delaware, Susquehanna and Potomac River watersheds. They are most common in the glaciated Pocono northeast.
Identification: Chain pickerel can grow to more than 30 inches long, but one of 25 inches and four or five pounds is considered a trophy in Pennsylvania. The state record is an eight-pounder. Two-pound pickerel are common where the fish have enough to eat. The chain pickerel hides easily in its weedy habitat, with its dark, greenish-yellow back, fading to lighter yellow-green along the sides. Over the sides is a pattern of dark chainlike markings that gives the fish its name. The belly is white. A dark mark, like a clown’s painted tear, appears below each eye. The fins are unmarked and pale. As is typical of pickerel, both the cheek and the opercle, or gill cover, are fully scaled. Chain pickerel have a long snout. The distance from the tip of the nose to the front of the eye is greater than the distance from the back of the eye to the end of the gill cover.
Habitat: Chain pickerel live in and around weedbeds and sunken stumps and logs in natural lakes, swampy ponds and manmade impoundments. They can also be found in the sluggish parts of clear streams and in the naturally acidic, tannin-stained waters that drain boggy wetlands, as in northeastern Pennsylvania. Chain pickerel are commonly shallow-water dwellers, but they can live in deep lakes. They don’t travel far from their selected home areas, and they tolerate a wide temperature range.
Life history: Chain pickerel spawn in early spring, when water temperatures are in the high 40s to low 50s. The spawning period lasts about one week. Chain pickerel are also reported to spawn in the fall, but the survival rate of eggs and young is suspected to be low. The sticky eggs, 6,000 to 8,000 typically deposited by each female, are scattered over underwater weeds. Chain pickerel have been known to hybridize in the wild with redfin pickerel, because their spawning site choices and breeding times overlap.
Just-hatched chain pickerel fry attach themselves to plant stems during the absorption of the yolk sac. Young chain pickerel eat aquatic insects and crustaceans, and are eaten by larger fish. As they grow, chain pickerel increasingly consume fish, which become the mainstay of their diet. At one year old, chain pickerel are about seven inches long. After four years, they are about 15 inches. Their natural lifespan is eight to 10 years.
Chain pickerel are solitary predators, feasting on fish, which they stalk through the underwater weedbeds, as well as crayfish, large aquatic insects, frogs and other small animal life that gets into the water. They feed during the day, especially at dawn and dusk, and are active through the winter, under the ice, so they can be caught by ice anglers. In ponds where they overpopulate and outstrip their food source, chain pickerel may become stunted “pencil pike,” or “hammer handles,” small in size and thin.
