Pickerel and leaves

[J.A. Veil]

Each fall most of our deciduous trees drop their leaves. Trees located adjacent to tidal creeks and ponds drop some of their leaves onto the water surface. Those millions of leaves create casting and retrieving hazards when fishing during the leaf-fall period.

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For some reason, the trees have held their leaves much longer than usual this fall. Most of the trees in my yard still have many leaves on them (meaning more leaf cleanup in December this year). During the past week or so, I am seeing more leaves floating on the tidal waters where I plan to cast for pickerel.

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This morning, I launched at 8:30 and fished for two hours. I worked my way along more than a mile of shoreline in a tidal creek. The water level this morning was quite low, meaning that many of my near-shoreline pickerel spots had minimal water depth, and the possibility of snagging submerged branches was higher. In addition to the low water, many of the areas had substantial numbers of floating leaves near the shore (the precise zones where I usually catch the pickerel). That makes casting and retrieving a lure challenging.

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I threw a 3/16-oz jighead and 3” paddletail. I had no bites for the first half hour. Then I got to a spot that initially looked unfishable because of the abundance of leaves. But I decided to try a few casts using the following approach to mitigate leaf issues.

• Cast into the leaf field hopefully landing in a leafless spot
• Let the lure sink for a few seconds
• Retrieve the lure slowly while watching the spot where the line enters the water (I use yellow braid so I can see that spot more readily)
• Move the rod tip to guide the line entry point between leaves
• If you feel extra resistance, do a couple of hard twitches, which often knocks a leaf free. If you cannot remove the leaf that way, wind in and remove it by hand before casting again.

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I was pleasantly surprised to pull 3 pickerel out of the same small leaf-covered zone in 5 minutes. After exhausting that spot, I kept moving. I found two more pickerel using the same technique.

Leaf cover does add challenges to pickerel fishing for a few weeks each fall. If you follow the steps outlined above, you improve your chances of keeping a lure clean and enticing to the pickerel.

[Mark]

Those are good suggestions John.

Another approach is to go weedless with paddletails:

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I use an Owner 3/0 Screw-Lock hook. I use no weight. The paddletail is dense enough to cast far and it sinks, albeit slowly which is how I like it to behave. The loop knot gives it freedom to swing to the right or left when the retrieve is paused. The bead deflects vegetation and debris.

The hook point is buried just slightly in the top of the paddletail which allows the paddletail to swim through darned near anything without getting hung up.

My retrieve is mostly a start and stop approach. But sometimes I do a steady pull. I’ve even skimmed it along the surface like a buzz bait for really aggressive picks.

Another suggestion I can offer is to offset the hook slightly. It aids greatly in hookups when a pickerel clamps down on the paddletail.

I use the above approach for picks in ponds with heavy vegetative cover but also in tidal waters even when they’re clear of leaves and SAV. You can cast it directly into whatever cover you face, lily pads, spatterdock, leaves, even downed wood.

And yes, pickerels don’t mind leaves overhead. I think they enjoy most vegetative cover. It’s a good place to target them.

I don’t intentionally fish for pickerels with jigs anymore. I don’t like my pickerel lures or flies to sink fast. However, I occasionally hook picks as a by-catch in the summer and early fall on jigs and jig spinners while I am perch fishing.

Pickerels are susceptible to being caught many ways, which is very good news for us.

[UnkleRob2020]

John and Mark...thank you for the suggestions. I have always had a strong dislike of fishing in vegetation of any kind and lament having to clean off my lure after every cast. Whenever I complain about it, someone is always quick to point out "that is where the fish are".

I learned to fish a senko for the first time this year but still did not want to cast into vegetation. Relunctantly, I began rigging "semi-weedless" and casting into vegetation and I caught a lot of bass and a lot of vegetation. What this tells me is that I need more practice rigging and fishing weedless.

[J.A. Veil]

I rarely rig up weedless and don't have Mark's experience in fishing around lily pads and aquatic plants in freshwater ponds. Undoubtedly, weedless lures can be effective. I imagine that like most other aspects of fishing, an angler's success rate with a new type of rigging or tackle improves the more times they use them. This discussion reinforces my opinion that there is never only one way (or even one "best way") to catch fish. Each of us has his/her own preferred techniques, tackle types, and rigging methods that seem to produce well (or in the words of a cranky, old fishing book author -- their own "fishing comfort zone").

[dsaavedra]

This discussion reinforces my opinion that there is never only one way (or even one "best way") to catch fish. Each of us has his/her own preferred techniques, tackle types, and rigging methods that seem to produce well

Completely agree with this sentiment. Case in point, I rig up a different way than what's been described in this thread so far. Similar to Mark, I like to rig weedlessly but I prefer to use a weighted swimbait hook with a sliding weight. I can move the weight closer to the head or tail of the lure for different action/fall rate. I use 1/0, 1/16 oz hooks made by Mustad for the 3" swimbaits I throw for pickerel. They are pricey though, $7 for 3 hooks. And I've had enough bite-offs that I started using wire leader last year. The wire leader is a little annoying to deal with at times but I haven't had a single bite-off since I started using it. Many people get by with heavy mono or fluoro for a leader, but I wanted to completely eliminate the possibility of getting bitten off.

[Mark]

Speaking of bite-offs...they come on both ends of the paddletail.

This is the residue of an active pickerel outing:

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The good news is that picks don't always do this. I actually experience very few bite-offs, front or back. But some days they are hyper-aggressive. The other good news is that not each of the above paddletails resulted in a miss. If you have the presence of mind to not strike back until you feel the weight of the fish on your line, a pickerel may immediately return to your paddldetail and hit it again. That is why I prefer unweighted plastics. They will suspend in the water column long enough for an aggressive pickerel to strike it again before it sinks out of range.

I thoroughly enjoy pickerel fishing. They remain active when the other species we like to catch either depart our waters or go dormant for the winter. They can be moody and make us work for our reward. I think each one we boat is well-earned. And and as this thread has shown, they allow us to catch them in many ways.

Nice thread John. And good input from all here about a fish that is fun to pursue at this time of year.

[J.A. Veil]

I wanted to mention one other interesting aspect of my recent pickerel fishing. On 5% to 10% of the pickerel I caught this month, I grabbed the fish, popped the hook loose, and realized that the pickerel still had part of the plastic tail in its teeth (no hook, just the plastic). If I pulled on the plastic, it would undoubtedly tear (maybe not for Zman plastics, but I don't use them). What works for me is to drop the fish back in the water and let it start swimming away still attached to the plastic. Usually the rod bends for a second or two until the fish opens its jaws and releases its teeth from the plastic. Then it is free, and my intact plastic is ready for the next cast.

[DanMarino]

Good report and discussion John, Mark, and others. I was having some similar issues with fallen leaves while fishing OBX canals last weekend. I was using a Redfish Magic spinner bait and was getting leaves on the hook point about 25% of the time.

[UnkleRob2020]

I really appreciate this thread. I am at home right now trying to replicate the way that Mark rigged the weedless paddletail on the Owner Hook above. I am hoping to get to try John's trick tomorrow of releasing a pickerel as they let go of the plastic. That would really be a neat trick...of course I will have to catch a pickerel. This is a great thread....thank you to everyone!

[UnkleRob2020]

Sorry for the back to back message. I just realized that I am rigging paddletails as Mark suggested and the paddletails are the 12 Fathoms that I bought from John Veil. That is the power of this forum....the community of anglers. To commemorate, I tried to upload a pic...let's see if it worked. I think these paddletails look good and I will rig with the bead. If anyone has any has any suggestions, I am all ears.