Mostly Pickerel Once More

It's been almost a month since I fished with Brian and Matt on the lake. Matt's busy with physics projects for his Boston University classes, so he couldn't come along. 

Brian asked for my opinion on where to start, so I said near the island where Matt and I had done well. Within minutes, I caught the pickerel photographed above on a Mepp's Aglia Long, size 6. I had set up the sonar. Depth was about three feet and water temperature 56. That temperature has definitely come up after most of April having hovered in the 40's. I did get readings as high as 57 today, mostly 55. The water was a single degree warmer than it was on April 5th when last here.

Brian lost a very good-sized pickerel on a weighted Keitech.  

I caught a smaller pickerel on the spinner before we entered the cove where Matt and I had done especially well. Nothing happened. There's some great shoreline brush in the water, too. Depths there about three feet. That was Matt's idea last time. Then we positioned outside the cove when he suggested we go in and try that brush. I got the canoe in perfect position for him to place his Mepp's size 3 right at the edge of a protrusion. The result was a 25-inch pickerel.

Brian and I went all the way through the cove and out the other side into the main lake, hoping that deeper water would pay off. I felt definitely psyched for catching fish. I had hoped we would catch a five or six pound largemouth. This is the time of year for that. Right before they spawn, the eggs of big females add weight, and they may be spawning within a couple of weeks. Late this year. Earlier, I was afraid we wouldn't get the chance we had today.

Brian's 12 1/2-inch perch took a shiner. I had lost a bigger one right at the gunwale minutes before. Then he caught a pickerel on a shiner. We spent an hour or more at very slow fishing, getting nothing but some perch taps on shiners. Finally I hooked a nice fish on the spinner back where we started. Brian got the idea of trying a jerkbait. He got hit on this first cast, and caught the pickerel photographed below on the second. I switched to a Husky Jerk, and then to a #9 Rapala Floater, after I found the Husky sank, weighted by the wire leader. (It's supposed to suspend.)

I caught a little 15- or 16-inch pickerel on the Rapala. Wind died. All the while, we had set rods in rod holders, keeping live shiners out. I put on a bobber, since without drift, the shiner tended to get into residual weeds. My shiners got hit a couple of times. The second time, a pickerel took the bait across the lake's surface fast as lighting. I set the hook into a very good fish, but lost it. Brian caught a 13 1/2-inch black crappie on a shiner.

Wind came back up and we drifted down lake as time to go neared. I baited the bobber rig, heaved it out, and before I could cast my Rapala, it went down. The result was a fat largemouth of about 2 1/2 pounds.