[shawn22]

whats some of your favorite lures to target Pickerel?
Day @ night and open water vs. lilly pad grassy areas.

 

[rac37]

weedless frogs in the pads,jigger bugs a long the edge,texas rigged rubber worm across the top like a snake junebug.
open water 4" rapala floating minnow gold,skitter pop frog,terminator spinnerbait 3/8 white,rebel crawfish cajun craw.

 

[Sniper223]

1/4 to 3/8 oz. spinner bait work along the weed line or open water.

 

[638571]

red and white daredevil, the double hooked style, not the treble. If its windy out a red and white spinner bait, (my favorite is a 1/8oz boyah in red and white, took a 6lber on this earlier this year).

 

[bluefinn240]

Anything with blades will get you fish

 

[RobertLIOut]

We killed them this spring on 3" Tsunami shads in firetiger color, bass too

Rob

 

[flukerr]

Ok, time to share a little.....

of what i know.......

Pickeral of all the freshwater fish i have seen, just love bluegills and pumpkinseeds. They will go out of their way to catch these tasty morsels....

With that in mind, use lures that will look like these panfish. Now, i am not talking about those little hammer-handle pickeral that so many catch. We are looking for those true waterwolves. Fish that are 22in. plus. With teeth like bluefish and speed to match.

My bait of choice is a 4-5in. tube, rigged weightless with a 3/0 ewg hook. Work the tube in an erratic manner to excite those big girls.....Trust me, 25 years of targeting those slimey ******** has taught me a thing or two....

One more for today. March is the month !!!! Think shallow, think bluegills, and hold on.......If you think its too cold for them to be super shallow, or for you to go out and target them. Then all the better, more for me.......

Good luck......

Brian.....Flukerr.............

 

[BASSSURF]

Any thing shiny will work but live lining bluegills/sunnies, perch, shiners,etc is more fun

 

[frankiesurf]

Flukerr is right, if you think its too cold to fish for them then that is the time. I caught my largest at dawn on a cold, clear February morning. In open water on a Rebel popper as I was moving from one reed line to the next.

Topwater works best in spring it seems, when it warms up a bit. My go to is a gold Johnson weedless spoon along a dropoff or weed/reedline. I love that thing. I do get them on F-7 floating Rapalas in gold or silver but that seems to attract the little guys. I use them when I have twenty minutes to fish before work in the morning. Almost a guarantee at one spot I got to but again, they are all on the small side.

 

[644301]

If this is a pickerel....

I think it's a chain pickerel

They were loving the mini popper(silver and blue) on wednesday. Mid morning they were biting heavy, but slowed as the day went on.

I couldn't get them to take anything but that, with the exception of one on a fake crayfish...They seemed to prefer stuff on top.

 

[BASSSURF]

That's a chain pickerel. nice fish

 

[shawn22]

Nice Pickerel, Upstate I like to use these.

This post edited by shawn22 02:56 PM 08/11/2008

 

[stuckintheweeds]

i caught a bunch last spring in hempstead. Theres lots of yelloe perch there so i ran out and bought an orange and green spinner and a little Rapala minnow the same colors. Had some really nice fish....and threw em all back.

 

[ballyhoo627]

caught a whole bunch of nice pickerel this season on small zara spooks at dusk walking them in almost like pencil poppers, its awesome to watch them follow it before exploding on it

 

[Jaiem]

I've always done well with a Panther Martin spinner. Gold blade with black/yellow body seems best.