Indiana Lake Depths

Pike family

Redfin (grass) pickerel

Esox americanus · also called grass pickerel, mud pickerel

Native to IndianaRecorded in 29 Indiana lakes

Indiana DNR lists this fish as “Redfin (Grass) Pickerel”, Esox americanus. The species has two forms: the redfin of Atlantic-coast rivers, and the grass pickerel of the Great Lakes and Mississippi basins. Indiana lies in the grass pickerel's range, so Indiana's fish is usually that form.

Illustration of a redfin (grass) pickerel in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Typical adult
6–10 in; occasionally 12 in
Spawns
Early spring, at 43–53°F, scattering eggs over plants
Eats
Mostly fish; also crayfish, frogs and large insects
Needs
Clear water with dense plants; intolerant of murky water
Indiana record
13.8 oz — Coffee Creek Park Pond, Porter County, 2020

Where redfin (grass) pickerel have been recorded

29 of the 111 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list redfin (grass) pickerel, across 11 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyJ C Murphey Lake, Newton CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyJames Lake, Kosciusko CountyBlue Lake, Whitley CountyWitmer Lake, LaGrange CountyStone Lake, LaPorte CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyBear Lake, Noble CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyPretty Lake, Marshall CountyMyers Lake, Marshall CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyAppleman Lake, LaGrange CountyLawrence Lake, Marshall CountySaugany Lake, LaPorte CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyShock Lake, Kosciusko CountySpear Lake, Kosciusko CountyHog Lake, LaPorte CountyMcClish Lake, Steuben CountyRosser Park Pond, Lake CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyRivir Lake, Noble CountyMartin Lake, LaGrange CountyPigeon Pit, Pike CountyWest Twin Pit, Pike County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 29lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 15 to 3,508 acres (median 82) and from 8 to 75 ft deep (median 50 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
26 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
2.5 per hour where found
Highest
18 per hour
Method
fish per hour of night electrofishing

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 8 lakes at a typical 0.25 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Stone Lake, LaPorte 2017 18
  2. Appleman Lake, LaGrange 2012 12
  3. Lawrence Lake, Marshall 2017 10
  4. Pretty Lake, Marshall 2017 10
  5. Bell Lake, Steuben 2015 8.0
  6. Eve Lake, LaGrange 2016 6.0
  7. Myers Lake, Marshall 2018 4.0
  8. Rivir Lake, Noble 2019 4.0
  9. Rosser Park Pond, Lake County 2018 4.0
  10. Shock Lake, Kosciusko 2018 4.0

Fish per hour of night electrofishing, with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

A small pike: long, tube-shaped body, a dark teardrop under the eye, and blotches or wavy bars along the sides. Unlike northern pike and muskie, the fins carry no spots. Despite the name, the grass pickerel form found in Indiana usually has yellow-green lower fins, not the red ones of the Atlantic-coast redfin.

Don’t confuse it with

Northern pike — Much larger, with white or yellow spots on the body and dark spots or wavy lines on the fins.

Life in an Indiana lake

Redfin pickerel live in clear, heavily vegetated water: slow streams, wetlands and natural lakes. They disappear where water turns murky or streams are ditched.

In early spring they move into shallow, weedy backwaters to spawn, scattering eggs over plants with no parental care. The young eat insects until they reach about 2 inches in early June, then switch to small fish.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 29 lakes with redfin (grass) pickerel

Show every lake, by county

DeKalb County 1

Story Lake

Kosciusko County 5

Dewart Lake, James Lake, Lake Wawasee, Shock Lake, Spear Lake

LaGrange County 5

Appleman Lake, Eve Lake, Martin Lake, Westler Lake, Witmer Lake

LaPorte County 3

Hog Lake, Saugany Lake, Stone Lake

Lake County 1

Rosser Park Pond

Marshall County 3

Lawrence Lake, Myers Lake, Pretty Lake

Newton County 1

J C Murphey Lake

Noble County 4

Bear Lake, Diamond Lake, Lower Long Lake, Rivir Lake

Pike County 2

Pigeon Pit, West Twin Pit

Steuben County 2

Bell Lake, McClish Lake

Whitley County 2

Blue Lake, Round Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana