Chain Pickerel

[butcher]

Hi Guys,

Probably a dumb question, but do pickerel scavenge like a northern pike?  I fish in the eastern part of PA where we have many good pickerel lakes and usually use large shiners to find them.  I know that many guys will use a dead chub, shiner or smelt to fish for pike through the ice and wondered if that would work for picks as well.  I've never seen anyone fish for picks with dead bait, so I was just wondering if it worked.  If so, it would give me some options for bait when the tackle shop runs out of large shiners...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Butcher

[Spin]

   Hi Butcher,
        I'm sure pickerel scavenge, muskie and northerns sure do. Late in the season more than any other time under the ice. It's an easy meal for them as numbers of baitfish and small panfish die off. Puncture air bladders if you want to lay the bait on the bottom of dead remnant weedbed edges or just past the deep outside edge of breaklines or fish them just off bottom. Cut bait can work ( I've used store bought frozen smelt in the past at times as it was the only thing available) but generally I think whole is better. Chubs, Shiners, Smelt, Suckers pretty much will all work. Freeze them(vacuum pack) now, try a few and save some for later in the season. Sometimes a bait store owner will give you dead minnows that normally he'd just be throwing away. Next time you buy live bait from him ask. It can't hurt.

                                                                                                             Tight Lines,
                                                                                                                      Spin

[butcher]

Thanks for the reply Spin. 

I have never seen anyone fish for picks with dead bait, but I suspected that they may scavenge given that they are closely related to pike and feed similarly.  I have an Asian supermarket around the corner from my house that sells every manner of fish you can imagine - and quite a few that you can't    Among other items, they sell fresh smelt, so I was thinking about giving them a try on my next outing and seeing how they compare to live minnows.

When fishing dead bait, do you fish it in the middle of the water column or do you fish it on the bottom?  Again, any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Butcher

[Spin]

   The bottom with tipups or just off, jigging can be another story altogether. Check regulations, about bait, now in Wisconsin because of VHS I believe it's illegal to use bait not either caught on site or bought from a source that's not licenced and selling certified VHS clear minnows so I think the old grocery store is out here. NUTS!!!
                                                                                                                        Spin

                                                                                     

[butcher]

Thanks again Spin.  Just checked the PA regs and they did not say anything about where bait must be bought, so I think I am OK.  I'll put out a few dead bait rigs next time and let you know how they do.  Who knows, maybe they'll outfish live minnows?

Butcher

[bigfoot697]

try bass size minnows or large buckeye minnows. hook them lightly in the back fin near the tail and let them do their thing. never seen a pick that would turn down a large minnow.

[butcher]

Thanks bigfoot.  I almost always use large (live) shiners when targeting picks, but I was curious about using dead bait for those times when the bait store is out of them - it seems to happen to me a few times every year...

[nbguy]

Dead smelt work great on pickerel, and will out fish live bait at times, fresh is best, but frozen ones will work also. Rig and set them the same as you would live bait, but every 10-15 minute jig your lines a couple of times.

[butcher]

Thanks NB - I am going to run a couple of live lines and a couple of dead lines and see what works best.  I'll report back with my results.

Thanks again!

Butcher