My first

[Tom Lagana]

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[Mark]

Nice catch!

Hope you had some fish grips.

[Big Mike]

That's a good sized pickerel. Nice job.

[DaveO]

A nice hammer handle. Fish grip? gloves? hand towel?

[Tom Lagana]

Fish grips


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[Huntrava]

Which raises a fair question: how does one go about targeting pike? It looks like you're using a beetle spinner--is that what you were trying to land? Bass maybe?

[Tom Lagana]

I was trying to land anything that hit it. I always catch white and yellow perch with it.


Tom Lagana
www.tomlagana.net

[J.A. Veil]

Regarding handling pickerel, I do not see the need for fish grips. The pickerel's mouth does not open in a way that makes a fish grip easy to use. My suggestion is to control the fish by lifting it by the leader. With your other hand, grab the fish around its body immediately behind the gills (do not put your hand in the gills). Then you can let go of the leader and use the first hand to grip the lure and slide it out. If the lure is tightly embedded, you can use pliers to remove it.

jv-1.jpg

[Cowpokey]

Which raises a fair question: how does one go about targeting pike? It looks like you're using a beetle spinner--is that what you were trying to land? Bass maybe?

That's not a Pike (as in Northern Pike), it's the smaller cousin the Pickerel. Nice one too.

[mtnmike.ma]

Nice fish!


Mike

[Mark]

Regarding handling pickerel, I do not see the need for fish grips. The pickerel's mouth does not open in a way that makes a fish grip easy to use. My suggestion is to control the fish by lifting it by the leader. With your other hand, grab the fish around its body immediately behind the gills (do not put your hand in the gills). Then you can let go of the leader and use the first hand to grip the lure and slide it out. If the lure is tightly embedded, you can use pliers to remove it.

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John has done this a lot and he does indeed still have all of his fingers!

I have not progressed that far in my pickerel training.

[EMSer]

Pretty Pickerel!

[sega]

Cool!

[Shady]

Best time to really target them is late fall or winter in tidal creeks. Right now they are more or less a bycatch. You can get them on spinners, fly, hard plastics, etc, but my favorite way to get them is dragging a live minnow on a light jig.

[whenican]

Well done!