ID request - pickerel and shiner

Just sampled a marshy habitat here in western Kentucky adjacent to the Tennessee River near Kentucky Dam. There is seasonal connection to the main river which is around a mile from this spot.  image.jpeg   425.6KB   2 downloads

In addition to numerous grass shrimp, I found quite a few of these guys, only an inch or two in length.
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Both grass pickerel and chain pickerel are found in this region. Wondering if there's any way to distinguish the two based on these photos.

Also went down to the main channel of the Ohio River and netted these shiners.


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Wondered if this might be a River Shiner.

Thoughts from the board appreciated.

I would expect that there is a much higher chance of those being grass pickerel. Based solely on location. I think Nate Tessler posted a Esox key that he made for identifying juveniles at one point in time. Might try to search that or contact Nate.

Not certain, but your minnows might be Silver Chub, Macrhybopsis storeriana.  I've collecting them in that neck 'o the woods.  Pickerels look a little unusual with that double stripe on the head.  Might be Chains.  Grow them a bit and you'll know for sure.  Tricky thing is finding small live foods for them this time of year.  

Oh, bet you are right on about silver chub. They are a big river fish. I can actually see the micro barbels. Good catch.

Well I consulted my Peterson's Guide, did a little research and found a couple more pickerel pics:



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If you look closely there is a nearly vertical black suborbital bar on these fish. This is characteristic of chain pickerel. On grass pickerel the suborbital bar is slanted towards the rear per Petersons.

Thus I tentatively think these may be chain pickerel, which are actually much less common than grass pickerel at least here in Kentucky. May even be a species of concern per the KDFWR website so I'm not even sure I could keep one if I wanted to grow one out to be sure.

Nevertheless an interesting find for a inauspicious marsh next to a gas station parking lot.

They are very young, so ID is difficult, but the chain pickerel I have kept have had much longer "beaks".  The "beaks" on these seem very short.  If I had to guess I would go with grass pickerel on that trait alone.