Found my pickerel mojo today

[J.A. Veil]

I have been out of town for most of the previous two weeks and could not fish in the Severn. A few days ago I fished for the first time using live minnows. I managed 7 pickerel on a very cold day. That combined with my previous 5 trips totaled only 23 pickerel this winter. I was not sure if I had lost my mojo or if the pickerel population was reduced this year.

Today I took advantage of the warmer air and very calm winds. I fished from my kayak in two Severn tributaries. I caught 8 pickerel in each tributary for a total of 16 pickerel today over 3.5 hours of fishing time. Most were 17" to 20". I had one at 21". I caught my largest of the day (based on girth) and reeled it to the side of the kayak. I grabbed the leader and reached behind me to get a net. I got the net and placed it in the water. Just then the pickerel lurched, and the jighead slid out of its jaw. I estimate the fish was 22" to 23" -- but without a photo, I get no entry credit.

The water level was very low at 10:30 when I launched and continued dropping until at least 1:00. That took away most of the shallow habitat with woody cover. I caught all but two of the fish today in 4-5 ft depth. The fish were definitely bunched up.

Tomorrow I hope to get out again to try two other tributaries.

[Mark]

John,

Great job.

Live minnows again?

[Shady]

Very nice! Im hoping to get after them again monday.

[J.A. Veil]

Ryan -

The fish seemed to be clustered. Today I caught several in one small area on consecutive casts (this happened three times), then got nothing for half an hour or more. It has been tough this year to figure out where the fish are hanging out.

[ronaultmtd]

Good fishing, John...

[HJS]

Nice fishing report. I've encountered clusters of pickerel a couple of times on the Magothy. Dunno why they'd cluster up that way or what they might be doing. They don't spawn until February or early March. Sure makes fishing for them exciting when they are clustered.

[J.A. Veil]

John,

Great job.

Live minnows again?

Mark -

15 of 16 fish were caught on minnows. Toward the end of the day, I played around a bit with a 12 Fathoms BuzzTail in brown and grey color. It has similar coloration to the live minnows and has a great tail-beating action coming through the water. I caught one pickerel on that and had several other bumps.

Here is one interesting observation from mid-afternoon. All of a sudden I started getting more frequent bumps and even bites. I would take up the slack and begin winding in, then the weight would be gone. I recall the same thing from other years. I think the pickerel takes the minnow in its mouth and holds it there without biting (I don't see obvious wounds or bite marks on the minnows that are let go). Sometimes the fish will bite hard enough to get hooked -- other times it opens its mouth and the minnow and hook come free.

[Mark]

John,

Thank you.

The two I hooked a couple of weeks ago hit a Rapala minnow imitation crank bait also in natural colors of bronze and black.

I was surprised at the relative non-aggressiveness of their strikes. There was a sudden heaviness on my line for both, not jarring hits. One spit out the crank bait when I got it boat side.

I have caught pickerel in fresh water when bass fishing during warm weather. In those cases they savagely attacked my lure or fly and did not come unhooked.

[J.A. Veil]

My experience with winter pickerel fishing in tidal waters is exactly what you described. I wind my minnow slowly. Occasionally I will feel a light tap. More often I suddenly feel extra weight on the line. At that point I raise the rod tip to see if is a fish or debris. I use thin-wired hooks on the small jigheads. They penetrate the jaw tissue pretty easily so I don't need a bassmaster hookset.

Yesterday several of the fish made a few jumps. That is fun to watch, and can result in some thrown hooks. As the water cools further, the fish will becomes less acrobatic.

[J.A. Veil]

Whatever I did right yesterday did not work today. It was really difficult to fish today. It was very windy with gusts coming from all directions. The water was very low all day.

I fished in two tributaries other than the ones I fished yesterday. I caught one pickerel in each tributary. I am happy that I avoided the skunk, but after yesterday, it was slow going.

I saw two guys in Hobie PAs out there. I think one was cbkayak (Matt) -- I did not recognize the other guy. I am looking forward to their reports.

[HJS]

Looks like the Severn will be experiencing an excellent series of mid-day high tides starting around the 25th. The mid-day high tides will continue getting higher and higher until they start hitting peak just after dark by January 1. Only problem is the early morning low tides will be really low. As a result, the Severn is going to be having some ripping fast currents. Based on Murphy's Law as well as my experiences this year with pickerel, when ever we have excellent day-time high tides the weather will be cold, nasty and very windy.