New found love for pickerel

[ddgst7]

Man, used to dislike pickerel cause they're usually just stealing my big baits off my tip ups but had a blast getting them on the jigging rod today. 

Retrieved 3 new tungsten jigs from the lips of a few of them who tangled with an unfortunate angler LOL

Feels great to be back on the ice

[Fishingjg]

Nice fish, where did you go?

JG

[RuttNutt]

Nice! 

If you were at Promised Land those are probably Spider’s jigs! 

[ddgst7]

Nice fish, where did you go?

JG

Sugar

[jaeger80]

I love pickerel.  You get a lot more flags than you do for pike and they give a spirited fight.  That said, my true love is pike....but their little cousin isn't so bad.

Nice fish.

[PennAngler]

I dig that rod, what is it?

[theTUGistheDRUG]

Nice fish!  I have rescued my own tungsten jig out of a pickerel one magical day a few years back.  We must have gotten over 100 slime rockets in one day.  Biggest was a 26" that came one a tipup.  Back a few times since with no such success.  I would much rather catch pickerel than the 5" panfish a lot of our shallow weedy waters produce.  That being said, I will gladly bend a rod on whatever chooses my bait.     

[JMZ]

Search this site for a receipt for pickled pickerel. You will love it. If you can't find it; I will try to copy mine for you. PM me.

[Spider1]

Nice! 

If you were at Promised Land those are probably Spider’s jigs! 

Finders keepers. But I'm sure I ain't the only one decorating those critters   I like pic's. I keep them if they are over 20" and grind them up for patties. I half heartedly try to remove the y bones, they grind right up and I don't even notice them.

[JMZ]

I heard if you use a filet knife and cut down the backbone and around the rib cage you can get the y-bones out. I plan to try it sometime and fry the pickerel and keep a piece of bread handy if I swallow a bone.

[butcher]

I heard if you use a filet knife and cut down the backbone and around the rib cage you can get the y-bones out. I plan to try it sometime and fry the pickerel and keep a piece of bread handy if I swallow a bone.

I stopped keeping pickerel a few years ago for two few reasons:

1. I generally release most big fish of any species so they can breed. For pickerel, I consider 20" and over to be big.
2. Smaller pickerel (under 20") really don't have much meat - especially when the bones have been removed.

With that said, there is a pretty simple method for filleting pickerel and small pike that yields 3 nice (mostly) bone-free filets. This video provides a pretty good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNtCEF5LXa0

For larger members of the esox family, (25+ inches), you can get a couple of additional relatively boneless fillets off of each flank (five total per fish) using a very similar technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JkA68kceCw

I would definitely keep pike in the 25-30 inch range - but only in a lake/region that had good population. Pike are surprisingly tasty and a small 5 lbs fish can yield about 1.5-2lbs of fillets when cleaned properly. A pickerel of that size would yield a similar amount of fillets but that is truly a trophy-sized fish and one I would absolutely return to breed. A pickerel in PA that is 23+ inches is typically at least 15 years old.

[Spider1]

actually, Chain pickerel have a life span of from 8 to 10 years. A 25" chain pickerel probably doesn't have very long to live, not that that matters, they are prolific breeders and grow pretty fast, faster in lakes than rivers. What I hate is the bucket biologists that kill every pickerel they catch and leave them on the ice or toss them in the bushes.

[ddgst7]

Don't like people wasting fish either Spider, although I do believe they can do damage to a lake if they are not properly culled.  Think it's pretty evident at high point in particular.  I keep them just because the fish commission encourages us to, I'm not as seasoned with the knife, I release 97% of the fish I catch.  I only keep fish during the ice season and don't keep too much.  I won't keep female bass or any known spawning female for that matter. 

[butcher]

actually, Chain pickerel have a life span of from 8 to 10 years. A 25" chain pickerel probably doesn't have very long to live, not that that matters, they are prolific breeders and grow pretty fast, faster in lakes than rivers. What I hate is the bucket biologists that kill every pickerel they catch and leave them on the ice or toss them in the bushes.

You are correct Spider - picks generally don't live more than ten years. The number I had in my mind was 15 years but that is for fish over 25". Statistically speaking, picks really don't live more than ten years nor do they generally ever reach the 25" mark. The ones that do are both very rare and very old. If anyone is interested, there is a great summary of this species on the PA fish commission website that includes statistics on age, length and weight: https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Documents/ChainPickerelManagement.pdf

There are similar reports for pretty much every other species that swims in PA on that website as well.

[jaeger80]

Old girl... hopefully still swimming.

[butcher]

Old girl... hopefully still swimming.

That is a BEAST! Thanks very much for sending her back. Hope to meet up with her some day myself.

[jaeger80]

Followed a jerkbait for about 10 seconds until she smashed it.  It was a great bite to watch.

[DowneastPescador]

Often times they are the biggest fish I catch all day, or only fish, and I have had some amazing runs from some that weren’t huge. We get them to 25-26 inches a few times a season in down east Maine. On the fly early season fishing for pre spawn bass I usually get into a few big ones. I jigged up a 21 incher the other day after it stole two baits from me, sent the third minnow down and hooked him on the tip up line, he gave 2 good runs. I appreciated it.

[Spider1]

yeah, I remember the first pickerel I ever caught, big ol' girl about 24" long with chompers like a gator. It was during a warm day in July and I was on a 10' Jon boat and caught it on a spoon. Took about 10 min to get it to the boat and it splashed so much I was soaked. I didn't know any better and I tried to lip it like a bass and it did that flip spin thing they seem to be so good at doing. I though my thumb was going to come off, bleed like it any ways.

[Raquettedacker]

Not only fun to catch but really good to eat. 
  Look up pickerel patties.     

[JMZ]

Hey Spider: Once I took a little kid fishing on my canoe and he hooked a pickerel with a plug. I did not have a net so i tried to land it by hand. I got the one treble stuck in my thumb and the other treble was still in the fish. I used my plyers to remove the treble from the fish; but had to push the hook thru to cut the barb. The kid was in shock. I plan to flatten the barbs on some lures that some fish, like trout, swallow to practice catch and release.

[butcher]

If you are pursuing toothy critters like pickerel, pike and muskies, invest in a jaw spreader. They're super cheap and make removing hooks MUCH easier for all types of larger fish - especially ones with teeth. You place them in the fish's mouth, and they spring open holding the fish's mouth fully open while you remove the hook(s).

https://www.fish307.com/baker-mouth-spreaders/

[OhhDam]

Got my first Pickerel this weekend. Beautiful fish, 18" had a good fight, lots of fun to pull in. It got my thumb as well, not as bad as you guys Spider and JMZ... That mouth spread looks like a good idea. 

[jaeger80]

Congrats on your first pickerel.  Esox are the absolute best.  Sadly, they don't get much credit in the warm water season, but on the ice everyone loves them.

[ddgst7]

Not so much the pickerel, but the Pike can be tough to find in the summer months.

[aj3j]

I caught my first hard water pickerel last weekend and it was a blast. Caught a couple on tip ups and couldn't believe how slippery and slimy they were while trying to get the hook out.

Also caught one on the jigging rod which was pretty cool however I was not ready or expecting it. I was ripping a jigging rap not really paying attention bc it hard been slow for a while and my flasher screen didn't show any marks. All of a sudden a pickerel came out of no where and absolutely inhaled my jigging rap.  It was a light rod which made it fun.

[M.Pershing]

Super fun fighting fish. People don’t respect em enough.

[jaeger80]

amen!

[malinoep]

Where were you fishing?

[RuttNutt]

Icehound and I caught a real fighter this year. He hooked it first and fought it for almost 10 min- I got some good video of it. Then about 10 min later I caught it, but of course it didn’t put up near the fight- only took me a couple minutes to land it. But it was  an epic battle with Icehound!