The bones are still there in either recipe, ground up in one and softened in the other, but calcium is a popular dietary supplement nowadays anyway. To be honest, it was the gamiest fish within bicycle reach. John's fishing interest developed on chain pickerel. Vermont has a lot of northern pike but pickerel inhabit hundreds of small ponds that pike don't like. Even eutrophic mill ponds can provide a fabulous fishery for pickerel.
Pickerel range all over New England.
They are native to the East Coast from Nova Scotia, south to Florida, and west along the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. And you're likely to find them anywhere, even in salmon waters. Barbieri has fished the Miramichi many times. Even when it was cold and sleeting, he caught pickerel there. But his best success is in the shallow warm water ponds close to home.