Good pickerel bite this morning

[J.A. Veil]

Today was my maiden voyage on the Slayer Propel 10. I made a separate post describing my thoughts on the new kayak. This post describes my fishing for today.

I came out of Weems Creek and tried trolling upstream from there on both sides. There were a lot of leaves and small branches floating on the water that fouled my lures quickly. I had no bites, and finally gave up on trolling after an hour and decided to try for pickerel. I have caught a few pickerel this summer and early fall, but was not targeting them. Today I worked typical pickerel shorelines with a pearl-colored Gulp swimming mullet on 1/8-oz jighead.

I won't say which tributary I started in, but the bite was excellent. I had at least 25 bites and follows, but got only 6 fish to the boat. Those fish spanned several year classes, ranging from 8" to 22.5". I later tried a second tributary and had 4 follows and a few bites, but no caught fish.

I am hopeful that we will have a strong pickerel bite for most or all of the winter, at least up until freeze over.

[Skidsteer]

Today I worked typical pickerel shorelines with a pearl-colored Gulp swimming mullet on 1/8-oz jighead.

What size swimming mullet do you usually use for pickerel?

[mweber02]

What size swimming mullet do you usually use for pickerel?

I've never used swimming mullets for pickerel but in my experience they target the same baits as lmb. The general rule I go by is starting a somewhat larger lure and only go smaller if I am not getting any hits after trying several larger lures. I personally think smaller fish are much more likely to hit a larger lure than a larger fish to a smaller lure.

[J.A. Veil]

My experience over the past 7 winters in the Severn has been that pickerel prefer smaller (2-3") live minnows to larger (4-5") minnows. When I have thrown really large minnows, they are often ignored. As a result I rarely throw large lures or baits. I don't start using live minnows until sometime in Dec, when the bite slows for artificials. But for this time of year, there are many successful lures -- twister tails, paddle tails, inline and safety pin style spinners, small swimming plugs, and Gulps. I have caught pickerel on 3" and 4" Gulp swimming mullets and on 2" Gulp minnow grubs. The Gulps that are most effective are the ones that have floppy tails that move when pulled through the water.

I'm sure there are lots of other lures that work well too -- when you pass something in front of a hungry pickerel, particularly now when the water is warmer than it will be in January, they are likely to pounce first, and ask questions later.

[BeyondTheBounds]

Man I would be out there right now hunting those pickerel, if I did have to take the fishing dogs to the vet.image.jpg

And on such a nice day too! Well Thursday Weems or rocky gorge....not quite sure yet....but this weekend doesn't look good.