From gusty to gusto

[J.A. Veil]

I had some things to do until mid-morning, then headed to Jonas Green park to launch my kayak. The wind was whipping down-river setting up a closely spaced chop. Particularly in the shallow water just off the beach, the chop magnified such that I took a good deal of spray over the bow. I quickly realized that I did not want to fish in the open part of the main river, so I paddled to a more sheltered tributary where I could get out of the gusty wind.

I cast a Gulp swimming mullet and a spinnerbait to areas that have held pickerel recently. The fish showed no interest in either lure for the first 45 minutes. As I explored other sections of shoreline and deeper holes, I finally got a few bites. However, much like my last outing, most of the bites ended a few seconds later. I think the pickerel grabbed the baits but never took them all the way in -- the hook never had a chance to sink in.

I was beginning to get frustrated when I finally hooked up and stayed hooked up. To my surprise, the fish was a large white perch. I have not caught a perch in about the last month, and thought they had moved out. This guy was 11.5" and was followed a few casts later by an 11" brother. Both fish came on the Gulp. I switched to throwing two different types of spinner lures that might have done better in the shallow water, but the perch didn't seem interested. When I went back to the Gulp, they bumped it on 5 casts in a row. I left that area and returned half an hour later. The perch were no longer interested in any of the lures I threw. I must have lucked out by throwing the right lure at the right place at the right time.

Not far from the perch spot, I landed my first pickerel of the day -- a slender 17" fish. I kept at it another hour and eventually landed a fat and long fish of 22-3/4". This is my third fish over 21", so I now have a full set of three for the SRRKC pickerel derby.

I had yet another nice fish hooked up. It jumped in the air, thrashed around, and bit through the line. I had one other fish follow the lure right up to the boat. When I lifted the lure in preparation for the next cast, the pickerel jumped out of the water and almost hit its snout on the bow of the kayak. I had a different pickerel do a similar jump and miss a few days ago. That is sure fun to watch.

Although the day started out quite gusty, it later turned into a day with good gusto!

[ictalurus]

Nice work on the picks again. What weight line do you use?

[J.A. Veil]

Nice work on the picks again. What weight line do you use?

For my Severn perch and pickerel fishing, I carry three 6' ultralight rods of different makes. Two of them have Shimano Stradic 1000 reels and the other has a Shimano Symetre 1000 reel. (I upgraded to these high quality reels during the past two seasons -- what a difference in smoothness and saltwater resistance.)

I initially spooled them with 6 lb mono. After using up a full spool of that, the next time I re-spooled I used 8-lb Trilene clear mono that I had in the garage. This is a good weight for the larger perch and the pickerel. The line is strong enough that I don't have to worry about frequent line breakage (today's bite off was the first in a long while. In earlier years I used first 4-lb, then 6-lb mono and had frequent bite offs or line snaps when a pickerel lurched at boatside).

I have used 10-lb braid in the past, but stopped using it for ultralight shallow water fishing for several reasons (too much strain on the rod, too many wind knots, too much potential for cutting my hands). I do use 20-lb Powerpro on most of my heavier casting and jigging rods.

I do not use a leader. During the summer I used a snap swivel on two of the lines to make changing lures quicker. For winter pickerel fishing, I tie the lure directly to the mono.

[J.A. Veil]

I snuck out again this morning for two hours of fishing. What a difference in weather -- yesterday the wind was howling, today it was flat calm. Yesterday the water level was extremely low, today it was about 2 ft higher.

I managed to catch 5 pickerel on a Gulp swimming mullet bait, but had no bites at all on a spinnerbait. The first four fish showed a 1-inch upward trend: 16", then 17", then 18", then 19". Unfortunately number 5 moved back down to 17". I caught no bigguns today. My first three pickerel were very acrobatic -- all of them went airborne and did some tail-walking. Talk about fun !!!

I am off to Australia for a week and a half. I will leave the pickerel biting for the rest of the Annapolis anglers to find.

[MetroMan]

Nice going. You've got the pickerel dialed in pretty good

[chex]

That definitely sounds like fun. Nice going! 11.5" perch! wow!

When you use the Gulp swimming mullets, you stick them on a jig head? What kind of action do you give it? Smooth return? twitchy? (forgive my lack of fishing jargon)

[kayak456]

i catch pike on mepps on the south river in the winter,wut are u catching these pike on?

[J.A. Veil]

When you use the Gulp swimming mullets, you stick them on a jig head? What kind of action do you give it? Smooth return? twitchy? (forgive my lack of fishing jargon)

The area where I have been fishing has extensive shallows of 1-3 ft. In the middle of the tributary, the water drops down to 4-7 ft. I found that the Gulp on 1/4-oz jighead sinks too quickly to use in the shallow areas unless I hold the rod tip high and retrieve rapidly (probably too fast for the cool water temperature). I have preferentially used a spinnerbait (Strike King micro-king 1/16-oz lure that runs near the surface) to cast to those shallows. Until the past two weeks, the micro-king was very effective in the shallows -- it has not done well on my last two outings though.

When casting the Gulp to the deeper areas, I cast as far as I can, then slowly wind the lure back to the boat. I have not found a need to twitch the lure. Unless I run across a shallow spot, the lure does not bump bottom. I do snag occasionally on submerged branches, but have had good luck in recovering the lures by paddling over top of the snag and changing the angle on the line.

[J.A. Veil]

i catch pike on mepps on the south river in the winter,wut are u catching these pike on?

I think a Mepps would work fine on pickerel (p.s. - these fish are called chain pickerel (Esox niger), not pike, although some fishermen use the terms interchangeably). The first pickerel I ever caught were gotten on Mepps spinners I cast off of a Severn pier about a decade ago. The spinnerblade had a company logo on (it was something I had picked up at a conference as a marketing give-away). During catching and unhooking the small treble hook from several pickerel, the lure became damaged. I wrote to the company whose logo was on the lure and told them of my catching success (of course I noted that the presence of the logo had much to do with attracting the fish). They sent me several new lures.

For the past two months, I have carried three rods with me on each trip. One has a Gulp swimming mullet on a 1/4-oz jighead. The second has a Strike King micro king 1/16-oz spinnerbait. The third one has a Maryland Tackle safety pin style spinner in 1/8-oz size (Woody's lure). At the start of the two months, the Maryland Tackle lure caught the best. During the middle weeks, the Strike King and the Gulp both caught pickerel, and the Maryland Tackle lure did not. During the last week or so, neither spinner lure worked very well but the Gulp did most of the catching.

I have not figured out the reason for this pattern. That is why I carry several rods rigged with different lures. You never know what will work best on any given day.

Once I return from my trip to Australia, I will purchase a batch of live minnows that I will fish on a 1/8-oz bare jighead. Keep in mind that pickerel are cold blooded animals whose metabolism changes based on the water temperature. Some of the aggressive swimming and jumping that I witnessed this week will not take place in Jan and Feb when the water is 10-15 degrees cooler. You will need to slow down your retrieve as the water cools.

One final note on using a Mepps or other lure with a treble hook. With the exception of some subsistence fishermen who eat anything they catch, pickerel are too bony to eat. If you do catch some, take a photo if you want, then as quickly as possible return the fish to the water so someone else can catch them again. Treble hooks are considerably more difficult and time consuming to unhook. Please consider crushing down the barbs and/or removing one of the three hook prongs if you want to use a treble hook.