I caught my first pickerel w/ pics

[kayak456]

i finally caught my first pickerel today! He was about 20 inches long. first we tried our marina with no luck so then we went to a friend pier that is at the very beginning of the south river. i put out 2 rods with minnows hooked on 1/16 jigheads under a bobber about 3 feet down. while those 2 lines were sitting i cast a small golden spoon called an acme thunderbolt. after about 20 minutes i thought i still wasn't going to catch one but i felt a heavy weight on my line and knew it wasn't just another leaf. i had the pickerel close but he went around a piling and i was afraid that the 6 pound mono would break but it didn't and he came around the piling and i slowly lifted him out of the water and i had my first pickerel!. these things are very fun on ultra light tackle. we are going again on Friday and i cant wait to catch another one!

[Turtle135]

Congratulations! Nice fish!

[Cal]

Nice man! I caught my second and third pickerel ever lately as well. I agree lot''s of fun!

[DOGFISH]

Way to go Andrew. Add another fish to the list.

[kayak456]

Thanks, we are good friends with a charter captain names george fitsimmons and he told us we can fish off of his community dock in riva. I think some pickerel will be back there!

[Shady]

Nice, glad you finally got one!

[frettr00]

That's a nice sized pickeral. I've only caught a few in my life and they were closer to 12-14". 20+ and you're getting near Northern Pike sizes.

[sparky1423]

When I fish Loch Raven, I see most of the anglers killing the pickerel with small bats and throwing them overboard. I asked an angler what the reasoning was behind his actions. He states, "They eat all the bait fish, we just feed them to the turtles." Maybe I am old fashioned, but I have some serious reservations about that. I enjoy catching chain pickerel, a fish is a fish....I am not picky at all. From my experience, they are really aggressive towards crankbaits.

[kayak456]

That is wrong. I think that pickerel are a native species and are part of the food chain, so they naturally eat baitfish. I feel differently about snakeheads though. Because they are invasive they need to be killed because they eat the food for other fish like pickerel or bass.you need to call dnr about those people

[sparky1423]

I like to check the dnr anglers log from time to time and was shocked at the amount of snakeheads being caught. Sounds like they are posing a real threat and most of them are being caught in the potomac. Very aggresive with top water baits, that what I hear. I have never caught one myself....but if I do, it will not be put back in the maryland watersheds. I heard they are a tasty fish.

[Redfish12]

Be careful with that logic -Bass are invasive to the Potomac... Same with blue catfish...

i say put a daily limit and min sizes on snakeheads and let them help the economy. They are a blast to catch.

[kayak456]

I never knew bass were invasive. I have never cot a snake head. I have only heard bad things about snake heads

[Redfish12]

http://www.potomacriver.org/2012/masterfishlist.pdf

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Michael, that list is interesting. People have been killing pickerel like that for as long as I can remember. I must agree, very poor logic. Although I have not caught one yet, I want to catch a Potomac Pike. Of course with the numbers they produce, soon we may be calling them Maryland Pike. Also, too bad hydrilla won't grow in the bay, need some grass there. Not all invasives are bad. Of course, man, other than native americans, are the worst invasives affecting the bay.

The invasive argument is very interesting, where ever it may occurr. In the California delta area, stripers are invasive. There are those in that area that want to wipe out stripers in the delta. White perch are invasive to areas of the Great Lakes. There are those who hate white perch in that area. One man's invasive species is another man's sport fish.

[DanMarino]

In 2012 I probably caught around 30 largemouth bass and only one snakehead from mattawoman creek. I caught a 19 inch largemouth and 26 inch snakehead within 6 or 7 casts on the same lure about 10 or 15 feet apart. So they seem to be cohabitating. I wonder what food they both eat and prefer?