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I wanted to get in one more recon trip on a different creek/cove. I drove to Jonas Green park about 12:30. A cool wind was whipping down the river, creating numerous white caps and putting a rugged series of waves in the shallow water adjacent to the beach. I actually debated about launching. Well I am sure glad I persevered.
After launching and paddling out 100 yds to deeper water, the waves dropped off somewhat. I continued on to my destination and began fishing. In this particular creek, I have a route I follow around the edges and along the dropoffs. The sections I fish first were good all fall but have not been productive during the winter. Nevertheless, I took a few casts. On cast #2 I felt that familiar pulling and shaking -- it made for a great start. After another 10 casts, I caught fish #2. I kept working the area that had not been productive recently, and today it was the hot zone. After several circuits around there, I continued to check our other sections of the water body. Areas that had been productive during the past few weeks were pretty slow today.
However, all in all, this was my finest pickerel catching day of the winter, at least in terms of numbers of fish. I caught 14 pickerel. I had another 6 fish hooked up. They did a few head shakes and dropped the minnows. All this action in about an hour and 45 minutes.
The other positive result was the presence of two larger fish today. It has been a while since I caught a pickerel about 16". Today I caught two larger ones with fat girth. The first one measured out at 19". The second one of a similar size was already on the floor of my kayak with the jighead still in its mouth. It jumped back in the water. As I tried to secure it a second time, the barbless hook slid free -- so no photo of that one.
I have often seen good wildlife around the edges of this creek. Today was better than usual. I saw 5 deer grazing leaves off of small trees just 100 yds away. Later I got closer to them before they spooked.
After launching and paddling out 100 yds to deeper water, the waves dropped off somewhat. I continued on to my destination and began fishing. In this particular creek, I have a route I follow around the edges and along the dropoffs. The sections I fish first were good all fall but have not been productive during the winter. Nevertheless, I took a few casts. On cast #2 I felt that familiar pulling and shaking -- it made for a great start. After another 10 casts, I caught fish #2. I kept working the area that had not been productive recently, and today it was the hot zone. After several circuits around there, I continued to check our other sections of the water body. Areas that had been productive during the past few weeks were pretty slow today.
However, all in all, this was my finest pickerel catching day of the winter, at least in terms of numbers of fish. I caught 14 pickerel. I had another 6 fish hooked up. They did a few head shakes and dropped the minnows. All this action in about an hour and 45 minutes.
The other positive result was the presence of two larger fish today. It has been a while since I caught a pickerel about 16". Today I caught two larger ones with fat girth. The first one measured out at 19". The second one of a similar size was already on the floor of my kayak with the jighead still in its mouth. It jumped back in the water. As I tried to secure it a second time, the barbless hook slid free -- so no photo of that one.
I have often seen good wildlife around the edges of this creek. Today was better than usual. I saw 5 deer grazing leaves off of small trees just 100 yds away. Later I got closer to them before they spooked.
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