Fish Sticks
Well-known member
A slow shallow canal with vegetation that is favorable to pickerel I imagine has also been invaded by snakeheads in the Delaware system. Are they in there yet?
Native Chain Pickerel Pine Barrens Trip
- Thread starter Fish Sticks
- Start date
Snakeheads are in the Delaware river at the Lambertville/New Hope wing dam But not in great numbers. The wing dam can be accessed from the D&R canal path. When the lambertville gauge is below 2.5’ you can walk out on the dam and fish. the pa side cannot be accessed. by boat, this is the most treacherous wing dam on the river. I personally stopped going through this dam and I give it a wide berth because age has me feeling less and less bullet proof. I have never seen snakeheads in either canal but I’m more familiar with the Delaware canal on the PA side.
rancid waders
Active member
I have caught pickerel while fishing for gar in feeder creeks to a tidal river
JeffP
Well-known member
Great pics! Looks like a great trip. I amy have to hunt for some next year. I'm not sure of any in the Lancaster area. Poe Lake is the only place I have ever caught pickerel. Also, these canals just don't seem like pickerel water to me. Are most of these Pine barrens waters easy to access and heavily fished?
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
There are pickerel around us here in central PA but mostly in lakes as you mentioned. The pine barrens is a different animal. Their in tiny blue lines(often the smaller more rare and colorful redfin pickerel) their in huge rivers at the salt line feeding on river herrings along side striped bass(monster 30” chain pickerel). They are in pristine remote ponds with no trails out to them that may not have seen an angler in years and they are also in road side highly developed lakes with high angler traffic. The range of opportunities for this fish is incredible down there. For the most part you won’t see anyone and these fish bite really well in the cold months unlike bass and other species that slow down hard core. Just gotta slow your presentations if its really cold. PM me if you go down
Other native species you can target while down there in some of the same waters are mud sunfish, yellow perch, white perch, bullhead catfish, striped bass and others.
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
The amount of wilderness to explore down there is crazy.
“ The Pinelands National Reserve is approximately 1.1 million acres and spans portions of seven counties and all or part of 56 municipalities. The reserve occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area and it is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston.“
“ The Pinelands National Reserve is approximately 1.1 million acres and spans portions of seven counties and all or part of 56 municipalities. The reserve occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area and it is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston.“
hooker-of-men
Well-known member
This is a cool read, if folks aren't familiar.
FarmerDave
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I lived on Mt. Laurel for about a year and discovered the pickerel in the pine barrens by accident. I was taking photos at a national enduro race and much of it wound around old abandoned cranberry bogs. Me being not from Eastern PA or NJ, it looked like awesome bass water. So I came back later to give it a try. Super brushy there and I was fishing from shore, so ff was not an option. I may not have caught a pickerel on every cast, but I did get at least one hit on every cast, except for the ones that landed in the trees.😉
There were so many, that was all I caught. The pickerel must have eaten nearly everything else and turned cannibal. The largest I caught was about 16" but I did find a skull from a much larger one.
The pickerel were always there, but I was told that the cranberry farmers would keep them in their ponds to control the rats when they flooded the bogs.
There were so many, that was all I caught. The pickerel must have eaten nearly everything else and turned cannibal. The largest I caught was about 16" but I did find a skull from a much larger one.
The pickerel were always there, but I was told that the cranberry farmers would keep them in their ponds to control the rats when they flooded the bogs.
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
I grew up in Moorestown!! Lol. I always suspected picks in those bogs
FarmerDave
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they were either rare or non-existent in NWPA where I grew up. I thought I saw one once in tionesta reservoir headwaters swimming at the surface, but decided later that it must have been a small Pike.
The pickerel in the pine Barrens was a welcome surprise for me. That was in 85, so fishing opportunities were still only found the old fashioned way.
The pickerel in the pine Barrens was a welcome surprise for me. That was in 85, so fishing opportunities were still only found the old fashioned way.
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
Largest was 14” but i targeted ponds that I knew had the highest numbers of fish which is not always where the largest are because my primary mission was to have my young daughter catch one. Mission accomplished.
If I wanted to go over 5lbs and 2 feet long I would have hit other ponds/larger rivers. Pickerel in Pine barrens may only be two different species but there are alot more settings, styles and situations than that to catch them in. You do it like hunting musky on big water with a 10 wt and steel wire for big chains or you can do it with a 7wt 3foot fiber glass rod with 7 foot leader and fluorocarbon tipit to a chubby chernobyl like brook trout in a remote pine barrens blue line or pond for small beautifully colored redfin pickerel
