Editing American pickerel (section)

== Distribution and habitats ==
The redfin and grass pickerels occur primarily in sluggish, vegetated waters of [[stream pool|pool]]s, [[lake]]s and [[wetland]]s, and are [[carnivorous]] predators feeding on smaller fish. However, larger fishes, such as the [[striped bass]] (''Morone saxatilis''), [[bowfin]] (''Amia calva'') and gray [[weakfish]] (''Cynoscion regalis''), prey on the pickerels in turn when the latter venture into larger rivers or [[estuaries]].

The pickerels reproduce by scattering spherical, sticky [[ichthyoplankton|egg]]s in shallow, heavily vegetated waters. The eggs hatch in 11&ndash;15 days; the adult pickerels guard neither the eggs nor the young.

Both subspecies are native to the [[freshwater]] [[waterbody|bodies]] of [[North America]], and are not to be confused with their more aggressive big cousin, the [[northern pike]]. The redfin pickerel's range extends from the [[Saint Lawrence River|Saint Lawrence]] [[drainage basin|basin]] in [[Quebec]] down to the [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf Coast]], from [[Mississippi]] to [[Florida]]; while the grass pickerel's [[range (biology)|range]] is further west, extending from the [[Great Lakes Basin]], from [[Ontario]] to [[Michigan]], down to the western Gulf Coast, from eastern [[Texas]] to [[Mississippi]].