[10] Its range is along the eastern coast of North America from southern Canada to Florida, and west to Texas.

[11] Chain pickerel live in a variety of habitats, including pools within creeks or rivers,[7][12] lakes with vegetation cover, swamps[7] and other wetlands.

Chain pickerel are also known to eat frogs, snakes,[14] worms, mice, other small mammals,[14] crayfish, insects,[14] and a wide variety of other foods.

[14][16] Spawning occurs in flooded vegetation at the end of winter or beginning of spring[8][14] when the water temperature is between 2–22 °C (36–72 °F).

Anglers have success with live minnows, spinnerbaits, spoons, topwater lures, plugs, and flies, usually tied with some kind of feather or bucktail material.

[21] If the angler intends to release a fish, it is advisable use pliers to flatten the barbs on the lure's hooks.

Chain pickerel can swallow an entire lure, so it will be much easier to free a deeply hooked fish and get it back into the water as soon as possible.

Methods are similar to those for bass, such as dragging a lure through weeds in shallow water and jerking it side-to-side to give it the look of injured prey.

Chain pickerel are voracious and opportunistic feeders, and will attack most any fodder that moves into their range of vision.

[citation needed] The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) all-tackle world record chain pickerel is a 4.25 kg (9.4 lb) fish, caught in Homerville, Georgia on February 17, 1961 by angler Baxley McQuaig, Jr., while the IGFA all-tackle length world record is 65 centimetres (26 in) long, caught in Henderson Harbor, Lake Ontario, New York on November 4, 2019 by angler Burnie Haney.