Unfortunately, tidal pickerels remain scarce this year. The only picks I’ve caught in 2017 have been in Eastern Shore ponds.
When folks hear I catch them on the fly I’m often asked if I use a wire leader. I do not. I use regular mono and usually no more than 10 pounds. I keep the leader/tippet light because the fly is light and I don’t like to make noisy entry on the water when casting to the shallows where picks live. Very rarely have I been bit off. That’s because pickerels usually do not swallow a fly deeply.
This is a typical pickerel hookup:
P1030209 (2).jpg
You can see the hook penetrated right through its upper lip, just as you would expect in a Clouser that runs with the hook pointed up.
However, that doesn’t mean that picks do no damage to the leader. When I disassembled my fly rod to store it after Saturday’s pond outing I checked the leader and it indeed it was frayed. See here:
Fray (2)_LI.jpg
I enlarged the photo to show the cuts. And that was after catching only two picks. Had the pickerels been more active, I would have checked the leader while fishing and re-tied if necessary.
I do the same when catching picks with light spinning tackle -- light leaders and frequent checks.
When folks hear I catch them on the fly I’m often asked if I use a wire leader. I do not. I use regular mono and usually no more than 10 pounds. I keep the leader/tippet light because the fly is light and I don’t like to make noisy entry on the water when casting to the shallows where picks live. Very rarely have I been bit off. That’s because pickerels usually do not swallow a fly deeply.
This is a typical pickerel hookup:
P1030209 (2).jpg
You can see the hook penetrated right through its upper lip, just as you would expect in a Clouser that runs with the hook pointed up.
However, that doesn’t mean that picks do no damage to the leader. When I disassembled my fly rod to store it after Saturday’s pond outing I checked the leader and it indeed it was frayed. See here:
Fray (2)_LI.jpg
I enlarged the photo to show the cuts. And that was after catching only two picks. Had the pickerels been more active, I would have checked the leader while fishing and re-tied if necessary.
I do the same when catching picks with light spinning tackle -- light leaders and frequent checks.
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