Spinner bait for picks?

[Jimbo]

Anyone use spinner bait for pickerel?
https://youtu.be/FPViH_-V8so

[bignose]

Pickerels love bignose spinner baits. Lol

[Mark]

I caught this one yesterday on one of my homemade 1/8 oz. jig spinners in a Magothy Creek:

P1060563 (2).jpg
They like all kinds of spinners, paddletails, crankbaits and topwater lures. I target them most often with streamer flies and flyrod poppers. Although they'll occasionally hit surface offerings in winter, at this time of year I use subsurface lures and flies. I save topwater for spring and fall. I've even had them hit small dropper flies when fly fishing for bluegills. They're top predators and will attack darned near anything we cast to them.

[Memory Lapse]

When they are biting aggressively, they will bite them, but not one of my go to for them.

[Mark]

I went to a spinner on Sunday because I could not interest picks in flies. Sometimes that happens. They can be moody and merely follow an offering (of any kind) and not hit it. Or I may not even see one for hours. Yet, I have caught them in the same areas where I am casting on prior outings. I believe they are present. They are territorial ambush feeders. They just are not feeding at that particular time. So, I give them something else to chase to try to pique their interest.

Also, I've noticed that they tend to bite at given periods on an outing. Their bite can be nonexistent and then suddenly turn on. My fishing companions and I often start catching them at the same time in the same body of water even if we are not close to each other. That happens in tidal waters and in freshwater ponds. I wish I could predict the circumstances that cause their heightened activity, but I cannot.

[Red_Beard]

Growing up I used to catch tons of big pickerel on spinnerbaits when bass fishing. The bass style, overhead spinnerbaits seem to work best for big fish, while inline spinners and beetlespin style spinners are great for pickerel of all sizes. Spinnerbaits were hands down my most productive bait for pike on Tridelphia last spring. If you can find some with an orange painted leading blade, those are supper productive, or you can color them in with a sharpie.