New found love for pickerel

[RuttNutt]

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

Spider makes some really good ones! 

[PaCarpboy]

 AJ3 - Best thing I have found for handling pickerel is one of those small boga grips.  Holds them by the lip with no damage and keeps their mouth open for easy hook removal without touching or getting your fingers shredded.   Not too expensive (<$20 for a small one) and well worth it.   There are various styles.   Look up fish lip gripper on the internet and you'll find a variety.  Saw one on Walmart for $7.97   Here is one offered on FISHUSA. 

https://www.fishusa.com/Rapala-Floating-Fish-Grippers

[PaCarpboy]

....and Spider could make patties out of a road killed mule and they would taste good.   

[Spider1]

mmmmmm. roadkilled mule patties ... grglgrglgrgl

[Paternoboy]

New to the site.  Pickeral are plentiful in PA these days!

[jaeger80]

Nice one!

[ddgst7]

Are the pickerel in High point and the pickerel in Sugar a different breed?  I think they are both Chains but the picks in Sugar I caught had completely different patterns.  Almost like grass pickerel but not dark enough or redfins but I still think they are chains.

[ExRaided]

I'm not going to lie here. If you fish a lake enough youre somewhat of a scientist as it is. Youre studying the amount of fish and quality of fish in that area. I havent fish high point in nearly ten years but the pickerel clearly need thinned out. As others said they reproduce fast and grow pretty quickly. Used to be a pike and bass heavy lake and from 2007-2012 it clearly changed to be heavily pickerel as the main predator.

I'm not saying kill them all or waste them but I you like fish in general then keep a couple and eat them. If you see many others keeping them and you seem to catch less and less of them over the course of a year then probably try not to keep them.

I'm also a fan of throwing the big ones back. A lot of saltwater fisheries have slot limits. You throw the small ones back to grow and the old ones to breed. Anyways probably in 2001 or 2002 I caught an 18 inch pickerel out of there and we kept it. Talked the fish warden at the launch before we left and he told us he didnt know pickerel were in there. So in 20 years they went from a relative unknown to taking over the lake. If and when I make it up next and I catch some legal pickerel I will be keeping them. There's a bunch of meat on them and theyre a delicious mild yet slightly sweet flaky white fleshed fish. If I manage to catch some big ones I'll probably toss them back at 25 inches or bigger.

I havent ice fished in years but if the ice holds out another couple weeks I may have to give it a shot.

[jaeger80]

Its possible they could be hybridizing with pike...

[ddgst7]

I'm not going to lie here. If you fish a lake enough youre somewhat of a scientist as it is. Youre studying the amount of fish and quality of fish in that area. I havent fish high point in nearly ten years but the pickerel clearly need thinned out. As others said they reproduce fast and grow pretty quickly. Used to be a pike and bass heavy lake and from 2007-2012 it clearly changed to be heavily pickerel as the main predator.

I'm not saying kill them all or waste them but I you like fish in general then keep a couple and eat them. If you see many others keeping them and you seem to catch less and less of them over the course of a year then probably try not to keep them.

I'm also a fan of throwing the big ones back. A lot of saltwater fisheries have slot limits. You throw the small ones back to grow and the old ones to breed. Anyways probably in 2001 or 2002 I caught an 18 inch pickerel out of there and we kept it. Talked the fish warden at the launch before we left and he told us he didnt know pickerel were in there. So in 20 years they went from a relative unknown to taking over the lake. If and when I make it up next and I catch some legal pickerel I will be keeping them. There's a bunch of meat on them and theyre a delicious mild yet slightly sweet flaky white fleshed fish. If I manage to catch some big ones I'll probably toss them back at 25 inches or bigger.

I havent ice fished in years but if the ice holds out another couple weeks I may have to give it a shot.

I 100% agree, you can see the decline of bass and Pike in the biology reports.  I keep everyone over 18" as the fish commission encourages but I think they should drop that number and allow you to keep more.  Kayak tournaments over the years you would see handfuls of 20" bass caught and just last season we had a tournament and biggest fish was maybe 18.5 if i remember correctly with many anglers not even catching a legal bass

[butcher]

Here’s my son with a 24” gator we got at Promised Land on Saturday. We put her back quickly. It was so bitter cold, we didn't put her on a scale but I’m guessing she was in the 4-5 lb range. If anyone meets her again, please tell her we said hello and be sure to send her back for the next guy!

[ddgst7]

Great fish, beautiful markings. 

[ICEMASTER59]

pickerel saved many slow days keeping the kids busy!!!!

[jaeger80]

Fantastic fish and thanks for sending her back to the drink!


Here’s my son with a 24” gator we got at Promised Land on Saturday. We put her back quickly. It was so bitter cold so we didn't put her on a scale but I’m guessing she was in the 4-5 lb range. If anyone meets her again, please tell her we said hello and be sure to send her back for the next guy!

[theTUGistheDRUG]

Great one!

[ice-phanatic]

I 100% agree, you can see the decline of bass and Pike in the biology reports.  I keep everyone over 18" as the fish commission encourages but I think they should drop that number and allow you to keep more.  Kayak tournaments over the years you would see handfuls of 20" bass caught and just last season we had a tournament and biggest fish was maybe 18.5 if i remember correctly with many anglers not even catching a legal bass

I agree, more people should keep them too. As well as the limit being dropped back to 15" as it was 15 years or so ago. I feel more bass and panfish are kept while pickerel are returned, which creates a greater uneven/human caused imbalance in some lakes.

[ddgst7]

I agree, more people should keep them too. As well as the limit being dropped back to 15" as it was 15 years or so ago. I feel more bass and panfish are kept while pickerel are returned, which creates a greater uneven/human caused imbalance in some lakes.

I have never really given this much thought but you are absolutely right, they are tougher to clean so that's definitely a deterrent.

[Spider1]

Noooo, not tougher at all to clean. Just different than the average panfish. I fillet them out pretty fast, and I can get most of the y bones out if I feel like going through the trouble, which I do sometimes. But then I run them through a grinder anyway and I often don't do that right away. I'll cut up some pickerel and freeze them. Then later as they are thawing I'll feed them through the grinder. Add an egg or 2, a minced onion and bread crumbs and make a bunch of patties. I refreeze the patties 6 in a pack and take them out whenever I feel like firing up the grill. My favorite is on a bun with lettuce, cheese and horseradish sauce. When I hit the ice, the fish I'm after are perch, crappie and pickerel. And if that pickerel is 24" long, it's coming home for dinner.