Pickerel, Mostly

We did throw plugs and spinners to begin with, but I thought the water temperature was in the upper 40's, and I never bothered to set up the graph with its temp display until after nearly two hours, the water at 55. Matt had just caught his second pickerel, on a Mepp's, size 3, I think. We drifted over 10 feet of water, working shiners deep, when he paused his retrieve to tend his other line. That's when the pickerel hit, a small one of maybe 17 inches.

I had caught one over 20 inches, maybe 21 or little longer, just as we began drifting, Brian having caught a little one by paddling backwards and keeping a bobber out. At the time, we fished the mouth of a tiny cove that looked promising. Matt had caught one over 20, and I had caught another of about 18 inches drifting, before Matt's spinner and the thermometer enlightened us.

Brian ended up catching three pickerel and a yellow perch of about 13 inches. He persisted with shiners, and after I caught a little 16-inch pickerel on a size 6 Mepp's Aglia in shallows near shore, Matt and I paddled towards the island to get out of the wind and cast spinners. Brian called out that he had one on, and we turned to watch saw him hook up and the red canoe begin to get towed upwind. There are bass in the lake of at least six pounds, I'm sure, maybe larger. He lost that one.

Later, he described to me how really big bass of five pounds or better often don't move when hooked. They run only when added pressure provokes them. That's what this fish did, and I told Brian I know what he means.

Matt and I found bass on a flat downwind of the island where the temperature was a full degree warmer. I lost one, then caught the one photographed. Matt suggested we fish a shoreline of the island where a lot of overhanging brush is obvious habitat, and I promptly began paddling with him. Within a few minutes, he had his big one on.

Getting that fish netted was just a little testy.  The moment I first saw it, I felt sure it was a bigger pickerel than any I have caught, and once it was aboard, I estimated it at 25 inches before I reached for the tape measure. Matt measured it at 25. My wide-angle Tokina would have made it look bigger, but the photo is fine as I see it.

My biggest pickerel was a 24 1/4-incher I caught in the dark at Lake Musconetcong. I've caught three or four others about that size, including one through the ice of Hopatcong I didn't actually measure, but as I remember that fish, it wasn't quite as long as Matt's.

I fought another pickerel when Brian phoned. After I released that fish, I called back and he told us he was headed in.

Get Them Through the Ice