Caught this nice little guy on a well worn Crappie Candy.
I was lucky to get him, his mouth full of teeth didn’t cut all the way through the X3 tippet!!
Congrats, nice fish
Great looking fish! I would love one like that! Oh yeah, sweet Pfleuger too! Old School is the way to go!!!
Mmmmm, nice fish!
I keep hoping to chase some more toothy critters. One day. . . . 
I’m pretty sure that is a Northern Pike. Pickerel have “black chains” on them. I could be wrong
Looks like a pike to me too.
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert, and I’ve never seen a pickerel in person, but here’s a picture of the last northern I caught for comparison purposes:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/ … GP0480.jpg
They look different to me, but either way, I’m betting he was a load of fun to catch and that’s what matters in the end. Really nice pic, too.
Either way, pike or pickerel it was a first for me.
A pickerel has a black line under its eye - or so says the Virginia game and inland fisheries site.
http://www.dgif.state.va.us/wildlife/fish/details.asp?fish=010056
Actually, that would be a good thing to have on this site, a fish identification page.
It is definately a pickeral.
WOW that is nice. Great play as to not letting him cut you off.
I say it’s real hard to tell from the photo supplied.
Bill, could you go back and get a couple more from different angles?
I’ll see if the little fellow will cooperate. I am going back this weekend - he may not have much of an appetite for another crappie candy, but I will check. 
A Pickeral for two reasons.
- Dark vertical bar under the eye.
- scales on the lower part of the gill plate(Northerns are scaleless in that area).
Cool fish no matter what species it was. Hope you can catch a few more. Watch out for those chompers!
Nice fish. I use Spiderwire Stealth for a bite tippet on them. Biggest yet is 24 1/2" on the fly.Got it right out from under the nose of a bait chucker as well!! Lost one about 8lbs 2 yrs ago. Couldn’t even curse,just held my mouth open in disbelief!! Keep the pics coming.
Haa used to catch them in New brunswick, Can…
lots of fun and the teeth are real sharp, have two scars on my left thumb, both cuts went to the bone… one is from a pickerel and the other is from trying to sharpen a carving knife with a tea cup and haven drank too many JD and Water, before thanks giving dinner…
:lol:
Hey Guys,
I saw an article on these fish in a magazine a few years back. I, too, thought it was a pike. The article identified it as a “chain pickerel”. Do a google search for “chain pickerel” and you’ll see that it is a pickerel.
Cheers,
Andrew