PA Toothy Critters FF Success Thread - 2021

[Dave_W]

Here's the new thread for folks to share your success, pics, or stories about fly fishing for muskies (pike and pickerel are welcome too). So if you're targeting esocids in '21, let us know how you made out.

Let's see who can put the first score on the board...

 

[Baron]

Thanks for creating this Dave. Maybe it would be appropriate to entice folks to contribute by awarding each contributor with one of the 8" musky flys you showed us a couple days ago

I for one have been trying to catch larger and larger pickerel while panfishing. Small minnow flies and white buggers in size 10-12 seem to be the best for both species.

I hope to see postings for all three members of the pike fam.

 

[jifigz]

I know that we have this thread every year......but when are the snakehead pics a welcome addition to this thread? Obviously they are here to stay.

 

[Dave_W]

jifigz wrote:
I know that we have this thread every year......but when are the snakehead pics a welcome addition to this thread? Obviously they are here to stay.

In the past we have had uploads of snakehead (SH) and walleye pics to this annual thread and that was fine (I don't recall any bluefish).

However, in recent years, we have had multiple SH threads that draw a lot of traffic and muskie threads/pics have diminished as some of our hard-core toothy guys rarely post on PAFF anymore.
I'd like to see a thread where those of us interested in pike, muskies and pickerel can talk without getting derailed with debates about other fishes.

 

[Baron]

I'm still laid up and will be for 6 more weeks of treatment. I can't hardly wait to be free. I even tied some flies just for Pickerel. These need wetting to train them but are supposed to be baby perch and minnows.

 

[Dave_W]

Nice Baron.

I've been out for muskies a couple times this winter but have not had any luck - not even a follow.

 

[Baron]

With flies? What is the water depth?

Hey you might be the guy to ask this. Gouldsboro hasn't Channel or other large catfish. they probably have big Snappers, And it is reported that there are Muskies in there. Twice last summer, month apart I had something on my 10 lb line or tippet. Whatever it was it took my indicator and took off with it in 5' of water. The line was clipped almost instantaneously.
The other time I using either worms or live small minnows. I was out in the middle of the open part of the lake in 5' of water. Slowly the line started going out slowly. I tried to pull back but it was so heavy I could not turn it. It even pulled the drift boat a little. After it went 50' and it hadn't stopped I broke off to save my line. It was slow and steady and heavy.

What was this likely to have been? I was thinking Musky or Snapper?

 

[Dave_W]

Big streamers. Muskies can hit at all depths this time of year but are typically in slow moving water at least a couple feet deep in our typical rivers.

I don't know about Gouldsboro having muskies (the PFBC lists waters stocked with Muskies but that page has not worked for me in many months so I'd search on the PFBC site by the lake rather than stocking).

I have no idea what you hooked but, I suppose if you were fishing with bait you may likely have hooked a snapper. Large muskies will move off steadily with a prey species in their mouth, but I would guess that the resistance through your line would compel them to fight harder or drop the prey fish. I don't think it was a muskie or catfish.

So, who knows....?

 

[Baron]

This is surely a story that I can embellish with every visit to the barber shop. Al Crouthamels Barbershop in Dublin is where I first saw a picture of a musky. I wish I had that picture. It hung on the wall for 40 years

Whatever it was it did not alter its Cours and did not speed up and your conclusions about Musky would lead me to think it was a Snapper.

 

[jifigz]

I hear ya Dave. I was just playing the devil's advocate there. I have never caught a snakehead so I don't care. Usually I catch quite a few walleye every year. I wish I had better pike fishing where I lived....but I guess we can't have everything.

 

[jifigz]

I have watched all of Fred's videos before. When they were first becoming established in the Potomac and the word was getting out about them circa 2004 or 2005 but I have not focused on Snakeheads yet. They do seem like a fun and challenging fish, though.

Okay, not to derail the thread. Let's get back on topic of pike and musky and pickerel.

 

[Mike]

DaveW’s call for pickerel pics, especially big ones, can now be answered by fishing at Leaser Lk (hint, hint). So now there are 50 inch tiger muskies, a good number below 50”, and nice pickerel. Float tubes are allowed.

 

[Mike]

One thing I forgot to mention is that Leaser has been a C&R fishery since it was refilled and re-stocked. The bass population has still not favorably responded in a way that is desired, but it is coming on. The pickerel on the other hand are producing some very respectable fish. They respond quite well in new or reclaimed lake situations and if not overpopulated, probably due to overharvest of adults, they produce big fish under C&R regs. In my view the statewide size limit should be a minimum of 21 inches, but it took a lot of work on my part to convince my colleagues at the time to even go from 15 in. to 18 in. Take advantage of the Leaser opportunity while you have it!

 

[Baron]

Mike, Call me when they start letting us keep some. Then I'l start fishing Leeser again.
And please ask to have the Statewide panfish daily harvest limited to 20 or 25 instead of 50. I see people that are so effective at catching them that I'm concerned. One guy at Gouldsboro told me that he usually has 500 in the freezer by the end of April. I see others taking many many every week. Allot of big DNA is leaving that lake, and Bradys. Maybe slot limits would help ensure that the big fish are not eliminated.
Do I protest too much?

 

[RLeep2]

I've seen a couple crappie populations that may have been over harvested and perch as well, maybe once. But never have I seen a bluegill population that has suffered to its detriment from over harvest. I'm not saying it doesn't or couldn't happen, just that I've never seen it. If anything, bluegill populations seem to produce more quality fish (say >8" or so) when there is at least moderate harvest coupled with a pretty robust LMB population.

 

[Baron]

Leapers, I was hoping Mike could share some insight on that. He's been around a bit. I'm obviously no authority. I've read that over-harvesting the large Gills from farm ponds can have a very quick and ruinous affect on fish size. Could it happen in shallow Pocono lakes? I don't know. But it took me 50 years to admit that I fish for Gills as their my favorite. So I have some concern as the average size Bluegill at Gouldsboro is on the larger size compared to other places I fish. I sure don't want that to change.

 

[jifigz]

We are REALLY DERAILED talking about panfish on the toothy thread but......

50 fish is a pretty liberal limit but I think someone harvesting that many fish has to question their own ethical use of the resource. I'm not saying that maybe the limits shouldn't be lowered, but anyone stashing 500 panfish in their freezer is either eating nothing but panfish, going to have one huge party and fish fry bash, or is going to throw away a lot of wasted fish.

Baron, no shame in loving bluegills..I'm a sucker for panfish on the fly. I often target redbreast sunfish and they are one of my favorite gamefish. A 4 weight, some simple flies, and a nice warm water stream of river and I could be happy for a lifetime.

 

[Baron]

I apologize. So far in my two years of catching Pickerel they have always been a pleasant by-catch of Panfishing. I'd like to change that and actually focus on Pickerel with more focus. You gotta whoop me when I get off track.

 

[jifigz]

Pickerel are pretty easy targets if you have a waterway with a good population of them. Typical bass streamers are the right size for these downsized esox. Clousers, deceivers, woolly buggers, and some topwater bugs are all that you should need for them. Find the weeds and you'll find the pickerel.

 

[Fredrick]

Fly caught Musky's from Paflyfish members are a myth and a unicorn if they actually get a photo of said fish . :lol: