It's true...

[Mark]

We've cried the blues here often about the scarcity of tidal pickerel.

A recent thread on the matter suggested visiting Eastern Shore ponds for cold water pickerel action.

John Rentch and I crossed the bridge today and found out that that advice is indeed true. We had a very good day catching many quality picks.

Here's John with one of his catches:

John with Pick.jpg

And here's me:

Mark with Pick.jpg

I got two at 23 inches and both hit a yellow bullet head darter. I got many more between 16 and 20 inches. Most of my pickerel hit flies -- either the bullet head or the old standby white and yellow wooly bugger.

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Pickerel are pretty hard on flies. Usually, there are no repeat pickerel outings for flies:

P1030700.jpg P1030701.jpg

They go into the used fly bin.

I also got a few pickerel on one of my perch spinners and two on a soft plastic rigged weedless. And I got this lone bass on a perch spinner:

P1030672.jpg

In terms of strategy, we found strikes in various places. Some were on downed wood. Some were in the remnants of pad fields, either right in the middle or on the edges of those fields. Few were hooked tight to shore. Perhaps they followed the fly out, but most hit our lures or flies 5 to 10 feet off shore. The good news is that the pickerel were very agreeable today and rewarded us in most of the areas we targeted.

[DanMarino]

Great report Mark! Love the big boy pickerel in that photo.

[J. Rentch]

Yes, yesterday was a banner one for me, got my personal best at 23+”FD86E272-0469-4D36-94BF-2A71270231AA.jpg. I had a total of 6, not a lot compared to Mark, but it certainly was fun.

[Mark]

Thanks Tom.

John, we certainly did alright. A memorable outing was long overdue for us.

[daddyg]

Nice fish I know 23" was a nice fight.

[J. Rentch]

Yes it was, felt good for a change!

[J.A. Veil]

Congratulations on finding some good pullage. It is a shame that our local winter pickerel fishery has diminished to almost nothing, but at least there are places we can fish if we are willing to make longer drives.

[mike o]

Nice job on the pics looks like a fun day

[Mark]

It's very clear from numerous sources that our tidal pickerel population has declined. The question in my mind is why? Obviously they are going strong in freshwater and goodness knows the Bay had an influx of that this year.

When our catch numbers started dropping in the Severn two years ago some of us thought it might have been caused by high salinity. That's not the case now.

Like many, I hope they bounce back locally. Until they do, I'll continue to head east where their numbers are strong.

They respond to varied fishing methods, grow big and put up a good fight. They're much fun to catch -- a perfect kayak outing fish that's willing to please when most other species are nearly dormant or gone. But if I was designing one, I would have left out the teeth!

[YakMan1731]

I'm psyched you guys had some luck! I'm looking forward to some fun with the pickerel this winter. The drive is definitely a downer, but if you've got the time to dedicate, I think there are few more rewarding winter excursions. I don't about you all, but as much as I love being on the bay or in the tidal rivers, sometimes it just feels good to float more or less aimlessly around the beautiful ponds and get some pullage.

[Mark]

...sometimes it just feels good to float more or less aimlessly around the beautiful ponds and get some pullage.

Plus one on that. The Eastern Shore ponds are absolute gems for kayak anglers thanks to their number, accessibility and the fact that many hold healthy populations of fish.

I wish they were closer to me but they're usually worth the drive.

[nhunter344]

Does Maryland or Delaware DNR have lists of publicly fishable ponds? I haven't had a chance to look for one yet.

[YakMan1731]

I did some Googling last winter when I first looked, and found this article to be most helpful- https://www.fishtalkmag.com/blog/eas...hwater-fishing

[Mark]

Does Maryland or Delaware DNR have lists of publicly fishable ponds? I haven't had a chance to look for one yet.

Yes.

Delaware offers a consolidated list of its ponds. See here: https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/fis...fishing-ponds/

Maryland refers to its Eastern Shore mill ponds as lakes. I'm not aware of a consolidated list. However if you web search for each of these "lakes" you will find a MD DNR description of each:

Wye Mills -- http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pa.../wyemills.aspx

Tuckahoe -- http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pa.../tuckahoe.aspx

Unicorn -- http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pa...s/unicorn.aspx

Smithville -- http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pa...mithville.aspx

There are others in MD but the above are the ones I am most familiar with.

And yes, our AACC course discusses Eastern Shore pond opportunities.

[Mark]

Part II

I trekked across the bridge again today to another Eastern Shore pond.

The pickerel were not as agreeable today as they were two weeks ago. Nor were they as large. However their pattern was the same.

I caught only 7 today and lost 2. Five were on the fly and 2 were on a soft plastic rigged weedless.

It was very foggy when I arrived:

P1040485.jpg

A great morning for topwater had the water been about 20 degrees warmer.

I used a 9 foot, 7 weight rod with weight-forward floating line. My tippet was 35 pound mono to discourage bite-offs. I tossed only one fly today. It was an unweighted crystal bugger (red body, yellow tail) that I quickly tied last night for the trip. I used a size 2 streamer hook, extra long. If there's a simpler streamer pattern I don't know what it is. Very easy to make.

Here's one of the five it tricked:

P1040489.jpg

And here's one of two that hit the soft plastic:

P1040494.jpg

None of my catches today exceeded 20 inches. This was the average size:

P1040488.jpg

As to the pick's pattern, they were near dying or dead pad fields. Or they were nearby that fading vegetation in open water on flats 2 to 3 feet deep. I got no interest near shorelines and no bites in deeper water.

So when fishing is poor, I enjoy the sights. Today several flocks of geese buzzed the pond. I took this photo and was surprised when I saw it on my computer. Note the reflection of the geese overhead in the water:

P1040490.jpg

So, today was not a great outing but it wasn't bad for mid-December. Certainly, it was much better than staying home.