PA Toothy Critters FF Success Thread - 2021

[Baron]

. Find the weeds and you'll find the pickerel.

All summer find the weeds? Seemed to me that the pickerel moved out of the weeds and stumps for the summer months and were back for Sept and first half of Oct. The rest of the year they seemed to be in deeper water. I was thinking to set up a bunch of the flies you mention to be weedless and then drag them right over the Lily pads. I thing Frederick does this to some degree.
Thinking double loops of 12lb mono.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

I've seen many pickerel in shallow weeds all summer. For me they are usually by-catch when fishing for bass. If they are not in the shallows, look for them along the deep edges of weeds. They are ambush predators and blend well with underwater vegetation.

 

[Baron]

I can't wait Swatter. Is it "Ice out" yet on Gouldsboro and Shohola? :-D

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Me, too! Unfortunately fur those of use who like our waterways liquid, the ice on Lackawanna Lake has just gotten thick enough for ice fishing. It's gonna ba a while.

 

[Baron]

I hope to start tying again tonight. Trying to pay more attention to proportions. I liked Kraft's Kreelix and hope to use it more.

 

[JerryC]

I've never caught a muskie on a fly rod. I've caught a couple on live bait. It's not a fish I actively pursue. Around here I like to chase chain pickerel, the only time I really get a chance to fish for pike is when my fishing buddies and I go up to a lodge in Northern Ontario for a week. Hopefully, we'll get there this year. I haven't seen any pictures yet. This one is two years old, and a South Jersey chain pickerel. It's the biggest one I've caught on a fly rod. I caught it on a fly similar to the fly in the second picture.

 

[jifigz]

Baron, if you're in Easton you are kind of in the thick of chain pickerel waters, right? I have very few places around me that have great populations. There are a couple of reservoirs that have them but they are usually dinks. A few of our WA tribs of the Juniata have pickerel and, while not as numerous, there are some very nice fish in these streams. That's the only problem with pickerel, they can often be small and overpopulated.

Also, while I've never eaten one, they are supposed to be delicious just like pike are, and I have eaten them and they are tasty.

 

[Baron]

jifigz wrote:
Baron, if you're in Easton you are kind of in the thick of chain pickerel waters, right? I have very few places around me that have great populations. There are a couple of reservoirs that have them but they are usually dinks. A few of our WA tribs of the Juniata have pickerel and, while not as numerous, there are some very nice fish in these streams. That's the only problem with pickerel, they can often be small and overpopulated.

Also, while I've never eaten one, they are supposed to be delicious just like pike are, and I have eaten them and they are tasty.

I was 60 when I learned how to get the Y-bones filleted out so I could enjoy them.
I am in a good area for Pickerel but They are sparse in the closest areas such as Nockamixon and Giving Pond. Towhee is verytough to fish so I go to the Poconos.
This will probably be the first year that I'll deliberately focus on them.

 

[Baron]

JerryC wrote:
This one is two years old, and a South Jersey chain pickerel. It's the biggest one I've caught on a fly rod. I caught it on a fly similar to the fly in the second picture.

Jerry,
While I won't ask you to give away your secret spots maybe you could tell me what part of Jersey. I was thinking of going into the pine lands. Perhaps in the Maurice River drainage for them.

 

[JerryC]

Quote:
Baron wrote:
"Jerry,
While I won't ask you to give away your secret spots maybe you could tell me what part of Jersey. I was thinking of going into the pine lands. Perhaps in the Maurice River drainage for them."

Baron, that one was caught in a private lake that my saltwater fly fishing club uses for the Casting for Recovery retreats where we act as "lake guides" A couple of us were "pre-fishing" the lake a day before a retreat.
The Pine Lands would be a good spot, especially if you can find abandoned flooded cranberry bogs. I've fished Union Lake and the Menantico Ponds, but not in a the last few years. I've heard of Sunset and Elmer lakes from club members who have fished them. They all have chain pickerel in them. The club's planning a fishing trip for chain pickerel sometime in early March. Maybe, I'll be able to give you some more specific spots. I'm planning on going, weather permitting, and assuming I've finished up the PT for my left knee.

 

[Baron]

Menatico is one of the areas I had in mind. I hear it can be tough to know when you are or are not on private property in some of those areas. Those Cranberry Bogs are everywhere and look very productive.
But then the thing is I'm 30 minutes from Giving Pond, 60 minutes from Gouldsboro, 90 minutes from Promised land and Shohola. I'm also told the Lehigh is good for Pickerel.
I want to get better at this fly by Tom DiGena. I can't decide if it is supposed to float or sink or have a sort of neutral boyancy. I plan to tie some as weedless as well.

 

[Baron]

I'm wondering how many of you are catching toothy critters in Streams and rivers vs lakes? I know Melvin does both.

 

[Dave_W]

Baron wrote:
I'm wondering how many of you are catching toothy critters in Streams and rivers vs lakes? I know Melvin does both.

I'm a streams and rivers guy mostly, especially for muskies in PA. I prefer FFing and flowing water. Lake fishing mostly requires a boat and involves fishing deeper water. One can certainly do this with FF gear, I just prefer creeks and rivers.

In early spring I'll target pike in a local reservoir but this game is over usually by mid-April and since it coincides with trout fishing and pre-spawn bass fishing it's not a game I do much of.

For pickerel there are some local lakes where I target them during the colder months of the year by fishing from shore. However, these lakes are now frozen so pickerel are off the game for me and with the arrival of colder weather, river muskie fishing is likely to end for me for awhile too.

 

[RLeep2]

Every year since we moved back to PA in 2015, I seem to be fishing more and more for pike, almost exclusively with a fly rod. I have a half dozen flatwaters I fish from first ice out through the spawn until late April or so. Some of these are reservoirs I can fish at least somewhat effectively on foot and others are natural lakes or lagoons where I use the inflatable yak. I've done considerably less stream/river fishing up this way targeted specifically at pike, although virtually all the creeks/small rivers on my smallmouth circuit also have pike. I get some this way, but not that many, especially of any real size. I may try and do more of this fishing this year, but it kind of depends on whether I have 3 messes of crappie ahead in the freezer. That takes priority over everything except smallmouth and sometimes, wild browns...🙂

 

[Nick_M]

Hi folks! Have been a member for a while but this is my first official post. Caught this guy in one of those cranberry bogs in the pine barrens a couple weeks ago on a tan ep style baitfish. They are a blast to fish for and I have found myself chasing them more and more exclusively this past year.

 

[Mike]

Baron,
You were “warm” with your mention of Towhee. Most of the creeks around the Quakertown area, which are tribs to the Tohickon, have CP populations. Tohickon has them too, probably as far downstream as Nockamixon Lk. Some of the fish are of a nice size, a lot bigger than you would expect, even in some pretty small water.

 

[Baron]

A good friend caught a 26" CP there last year in early march. Ive rowed around in the drift boat and I can't figure out how to fish in that environment. The weeds, milfoil I think it is comes up from the bottom to within inches of the surface.......this in 4-6' feet. then there are the Pads, wow there are Pads. I am determined to pull more fish from there but could use some pointers. I grew up in Dublin and watched them build Nockamixon. I would have liked to get to know Towhee even better but I moved away.

Mike are you familiar with the lake? I've never seen anyone go way back into the pads and stumps at the back. Is it worth it or is there not any sense to it?


For those familiar with pottery, Lake Towhee area is where the famous Henry Mercer (father of pre-stressed concrete) would get his wonderful white clay.

 

[Baron]

Mike, Before Nockamixon Dam was filled and the stream ran free it was paradise in that valley. My mom would take me fishing and it was a blast. There were pickerel all up and down the valley. As a little shaver I didn't understand the art of surprise or what bait they wanted but I could see them up to 18 inches from many of the bridges crossing the creek. Once the dam was done I rarely ever saw another CP in the creek. I'm told they are living well in the spillway area but I've rarely seen them in the creek. Rumor has it that the spillway is topwater and warm while the creek is released from the bottom and is 53 degrees year round. Allot of warm water species aren't as happy here in the cold. The creek used to have allot of rock bass from Meyers Dam down through Stovers and clear to Point Pleasant. Not sure if that is still the case. They were sure allot better tasting than the stocked trout that are there now days.

 

[Mike]

Nockamixon has large Cp, but few of them. Not worth fishing for them anymore. Ice fishing for them was reliable back in the 1990’s.

 

[Baron]

We used to run a jeep around down in the lake while it was filling. At night we'd use the spotting light to scan the water and we'd see pickerel sitting still in shallow water.