Precision of Calcified Structures Used for Estimating Age of Chain Pickerel

With the exception of Northern Pike Esox lucius, there is a paucity of information on the precision of age estimates based on calcified structures for esocid species, especially Chain Pickerel E. niger. We estimated ages for 42 Chain Pickerel from Stevens Creek Reservoir on the Savannah River, South Carolina–Georgia. Ages were estimated using sectioned pelvic, pectoral, dorsal, and anal fin rays, scales, cleithra (sectioned and whole), and otoliths to assess precision between repeated readings (four readers). Precision was evaluated by calculating agreement among readers, CV, and mean absolute difference (MAD) in estimates between reader pairs. We tested for differences in precision of estimates among structures using linear mixed models with CV or MAD as the response. Finally, we used age bias plots to evaluate whether there were structure or reader‐related systematic biases in estimates. Coefficient of variation and MAD were significantly related to structure type (CV: P = 0.006, MAD: P = 0.001) and mean estimated age (CV: P