Chain Pickerel on the fly

R

Rkey530

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
60
Like 15 years ago I used to catch chain pickerel with a spinning rod and 1/8 oz rooster tails in really shallow water on a reservior. I've been thinking these fish could be really fun on a fly rod. Thought about trying a brightly coloured stream and floating line with a fast strip. Has anyone had any success doing this?
 
Chain pickeral are a fun fish to target with the long rod. Here in my neck of the woods SCPA, pickeral populations are spotty. I would think the Pocono region would have good pops in the natural lakes up there as would central NY. In MD, they're very thick in the tidal creeks and rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay. They really turn on in the cold water of winter and are widely sought by fishermen down there as light tackle gamefish.
 
Yes - they are all over the place in the poconos. I've never tried catching one on a fly rod, but grew up catching them on spinners...and now so have my children :)

I would think any flashy streamer stripped quickly would get them. They are pretty aggressive and will hit almost anything that looks like a minnow. Just be careful with size streamer/tippet as you don't want those teeth causing too many lost flies and fish.
 
I always caught them with rapalas. I would imagine a ckouser would fish similarly well.

I didn't have a fly rod the last time I fished for pickerel in NH. I will not make that mistake this year.
 
YEP.......JayL is right about the clouser , they work great for chain pickerel , beleive it or not the special regs section of Clarks creek in Dauphin county used to have quite a few in there with all those trout , in recent years their numbers have dropped off but there still are a few , the last one i caught would have been around now , right before the Holidays , of 2006 , it was right above the special regs section , i saw him move first and sight cast a clouser to him and he grabbed it on the first pass , over the years i must have caught at least a few dozen from Clarks and i saw a kingfisher kill a small one once. The Clouser pattern i'd suggest would be natural brown and white , with gold tinsel wrapped to bend and a couple peices of chrristmas tree tinsel in there for flash.....HAPPY HUNTING
 
Fishidiot wrote:
They really turn on in the cold water of winter and are widely sought by fishermen down there as light tackle gamefish.

They turn active in the cold?

I know the Lehigh Canal is supposed to be stuffed with 'em, but the few times I messed around there over summer, I never saw a thing. Since everything else is largemouth or gills, I assumed there'd be no reason to go back.
 
gfen wrote:

I know the Lehigh Canal is supposed to be stuffed with 'em, but the few times I messed around there over summer, I never saw a thing. Since everything else is largemouth or gills, I assumed there'd be no reason to go back.

I used to fish the canal when i was younger (before discovering fly fishing) with spinners. I caught some pretty big pickerel out of there.
 
micky finns with flash, clousers, any minnow pattern will work. Great fish on a 5 wt. any where from bucks co. to ny. and west to ohio.
 
I'm sure they'd be fun on the fly, but you gotta try ice fishing for em. Get a 4 wheeler, some beer, minnows and a few friends. Light a fire on the ice and there's no better way to get through the winter.
 
I've seen them caught below the spillway at Kettle on opening day. I understand the Sinne. was polluted with them in the old days.
 
gfen,
Pickeral do indeed seem easier to catch and more numerous in tidal waters in Maryland during the colder months. That's not to say they don't bite during the summer (they do) - perhaps folks are distracted by so many other species available during the warmer months. Whatever the case, the winter months really bring the pickeral fans out in MD.
Here's the weekly fishing report from the MD Dept of Nat Res - if you scroll down to the bottom there is some discussion of the cold weather pickeral fishery.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishingreport/freshwater.asp
 
Pickeral to me are the closest freshwater fish to blue fish . They hit with bad intensions I usualy do good with rabitstrip paterns . I love when they chase your fly and you see the wake in the water .
 
I've found them in the same areas as brown trout, so big brown trout.
 
I've been up to Maine the last 3 years and the lake that I fish is thick with Pickerel. Pretty much anything that can move quickly and has some flash to it is effective. The biggest issue that I found is that they tend to live in the thickest, weediest stuff and streamers can be a real pain in the rear to fish because you'll be cleaning weeds off of your fly every other cast. I've found that a popper is the most effective pattern to fish in those thick areas. I usually try to find open lanes in the weeds or fish parallel to the weed edge and just retrieve the fly as fast as possible. 9 times of out 10, you'll see them streaking to the fly and then BAM! Pretty exciting fishing if you ask me.
 
tomgamber wrote:
I've seen them caught below the spillway at Kettle on opening day.

Funny you mention the spillways. My wife landed one on a spinning rod at the base of the Stevenson Dam in Cameron County. May have to take the 5wt for a walk some day when I'm up there.
 
Lehigh Canal has some, I wouldnt say it's loaded but there are some big ones. A buddy of mine fishes Pecks Pond and does pretty well. They would be a blast on a 5 weight I bet.
 
Years ago (before boat)we used to wade the pocono lakes in early spring casting streamers to the pickerel in the shallows, a good way to start the season.
The Delaware canal in bucks county was loaded with them. You could spend the day walking the canal covering alot of ground and not being dissapointed. When they drained the canal and only about a foot or so of water was left we turned our attention to the carp that were left behind. Sightfishing for them was a blast, it was like fishing the flats. Eventually that dried up too, sad because it was only 25 minutes away.
 
Years ago when I lived in south NJ, the pickerel was the most common fish in the fresh water system. Much more abundant than largemouth or crappies.
Just north of Dennisville Lake is a lake called "East Pickerel Lake" I caught lots of big pickerel there. You couldn't wade the NJ lakes because the bottom was like quick sand! Also lots of snakes, big snapping turtles and the NJ State Bird..... the mosquito! You really need a jon boat or a canoe to fish most pickerel lakes.
Like SandFly said, any bright streamer will catch as good as a spinner.
When you go farther north, the pike and muskys take over, but in NJ the pickerel was king.
 
I have also fished the ponds of jersey for pickerel.

We would walk out on to a dock and poke a hole in the pond scum with a stick. Drop a live minnow in and wait about 15 seconds. You could catch 4 or 5 of them before moving 10 feet down the dock and making a new hole.

It was a blast.
 
Pickerel will eat anything smaller than they are,and try to eat things larger. I agree any flashy streamer should work well.
 
Back
Top