Pickerel Lures

[sparky1423]

After cleaning up from the February meet and greet, I decided to gather my tackle for the pickerel hunt on March 9th. Please feel free to comment and critique...knowing the best of all the baits are live minnows.

All of the pickerel I have caught have been on Loch raven when targeting bass. Almost 100% of them I have caught with crankbaits, shallow and deep runners. The rest of the pickerel have been landed on inline spinners, the black fury seems to be the favorite.

After reading John's article on pickerel fishing and habitat, I threw in a few more baits that makes sense. Also viewing Comeonfish's video of his first pickerel, gave me the confidence to throw in a few grubs, some on jig heads and one on a roadrunner. I recently turned my attention to some fishing blogs targeting pickerel stating they will hit on plastic worms and jigs, that explains the shakyhead worm with the skirt. I usually will dropshot this bait, but floating it along a weed line attracting this stalking predator makes sense to me.

No rhyme or reason for this post, just sharing my enthusiasm for the March meet and greet.

[Goody]

I'm gonna pickup some minnows and try artificial as well.

[imagine29028]

Soft plastic jerk baits...Flashy colorful soft plastic grubs/worms (white & bubblegum)

[HJS]

I've had great luck in the Magothy using 3"-4" twistertails on a 3/8 oz jig. I like the pearl-pepper flake pattern best. Chartreuse/olive, like the ones in the lower left of your pic, also work well as will most of the lures pictured. Also 4" soft plastic minnows in natural colors work equally as well. I shy away from lures with multiple treble hooks because of the damage the hooks cause to the pickerel's delicate mouth tissues.

[Shady]

The inline spinners and beetle spin looking things look really good for pickerel to me. I used to catch them in loch raven on pretty much anything flashy. In tidal water, most of the ones ive caught have been on minnows and a few on inline spinners. I like to fish the minnows on a light roadrunner

[J.A. Veil]

They all look promising. As a reminder, the relatively shallow areas where the pickerel are likely to be are often coated with green slime. If your lure is heavy, you will get slimed frequently unless you keep the lure off the bottom. That might require a fast retrieve -- remember that the fish are cold-blooded and will be more sluggish than in Nov and Dec.

I concur with the comment on using treble hooks. They can be pretty destructive if you plan to release your catch.

[Strummerfan]

Back when I lived on Weems Creek I used to catch them on Rooster Tails. They were great for WP,YP as well and fairly effective for stripers.

[sparky1423]

Thanks for the comments and advice. Maybe I should save the crankbaits for another day. Wasn't much of an issue at Loch raven, as they seem to over populate there. Fish are friends, not food...atleast with this meet and greet. I have some gulp minnows, but they are 2.5". I have not tried them, maybe it's time.

Man, do they stink! Made a mistake of not sealing the package completely. Should the 2.5" work? I really can't justify buying the 4" minnows with the amount of tackle I have.

[HJS]

sparky - Pickerel are not very picky as to what they will hit. A 2.5" soft plastic should work just fine and should also attract the interest of yellow perch.

[Shady]

sparky - Pickerel are not very picky as to what they will hit. A 2.5" soft plastic should work just fine and should also attract the interest of yellow perch.

and white perch if there are any around yet

[master pungo]

You might want to try small spinner baits with two blades. They are mostly weedless and can be fished slow at any depth.
I also like wake baits that go just under the surface and aviod some of the deaded slime.

[sparky1423]

You might want to try small spinner baits with two blades. They are mostly weedless and can be fished slow at any depth.
I also like wake baits that go just under the surface and aviod some of the deaded slime.

A have a few smaller inline spinners with double blades and a single hook I used to trail with a grub for shallow bass. I will have to dig them out