Pickerel Fishing on the Full Moon

If I have to make a choice as to when I go fishing I will always pick a time right close to or on the full moon.

It seems like something goes off in those little fish brains that makes them all the meaner and I like to be there when it happens as it almost always makes for a wild day of fishing.

When Jamie called Monday evening to see if Tuesday was a good day for me to go fishing I never bothered to check my schedule or I would have seen it was a full moon. I just said what time are you picking me up.

It wasn`t until I was back home with worn our arms and exhausted that I realized it was a full moon and that explained the great day we had.

I have had days like we had Tuesday a number of times before and they are the best memories.

Jamie on the other hand had never experienced a day like we were about to have. And I am sure he will never forget it. Heck we weren’t even packed up to go home yet and he was ready to go again.

It was one of those days that you didn`t even want to take time to stop to eat, drink or even to take a leak.

I ate between casts while my line was in the air and pretty much forgot all about drinking my water, which I paid for the next day as I let myself get a bit dehydrated.

We spent the entire 12 hours in the canoe without one break so when it came time to get out that evening it was a funny site.

Someone should have been there with a video camera when we tried to get out of the canoe. Our knee joints we all but fused by then and it took about 5 minutes to get up and out. It was one of those pains that make you laugh.

I managed to crawl out first as I was the closest to the bank so I got to watch what Jamie had just watched and it was truly funny to watch Jamie trying to get up on his feet. Next time I will think to get out my camera.

Okay, Back to our Day of Pickerel Fishing

We got there early but just like the last few weeks the wind was up earlier than we were which can make fishing the weeds for pickerel a lot tougher.

If I am fishing pickerel in deeper water they don`t seem to be affected by the wind but when we fish the weeds the slightest breeze can shut them down instantly.

Instead of staying there in the wind we usually move to a nice spot I know that is protected from the wind and we fish smallmouth bass there. But this day I suggested we move to a different spot but keep fishing pickerel.

I picked a spot that was out of the wind, usually. When we got there it was still windy, just not as windy.

The spot I suggested was an area that I had fished years ago from my float tube. The fishing we good then but the journey was too long and hard to bother trying again from float tubes.

We were in Jamies canoe so I thought we should give it a try as we would get there in a fraction of the time it took with my float tube.

We fished for a while and had a little action but the wind was still causing enough ripples on the water that the pickerel were keeping pretty quiet.

Then we moved to a more protected spot where the wind was on the opposite side of the trees. The water was like glass and that’s when the pickerel went nuts.

Let The Fun Begin

Once we hit that hot spot I think I spent the rest of the day with a googy look of happiness on my face. Kind like the picture on the right here.

Before we made it to this awesome spot we were getting a few here and there but nothing like we were about to experience.

Jamie knew I was right about the wind and the weeds and how the pickerel would shut down when ever the breeze picked up but he had no idea what we had been missing until we came around a point that was protected from the wind.

Hours And Hours of None Stop Pickerel Action

I was bringing the canoe to the spot where we could see calm water.

The very first cast was made by Jamie and the water exploded as a big ole pickerel grabbed the big pink worm Jamie was using and headed out of the province.

Jamie had struck gold as you can see on the left.

Notice the nice glove Jamie is wearing. A fine gardening glove with rubber palms so holding the pickerel is much safer. He learned from my mistake a couple of weeks before when my fingers slipped into the gill plate.

I was cut up pretty bad but was very fortunate that they weren’t deep enough to stop us from fishing that day. It was just shear luck that I didn’t have to go and get stitches.

Maybe I need to get a glove myself as they tend to be a pretty slippery fish and a fish that doesn’t sit quietly while you remove the hook.

We went from seeing a bit of action in the wind to getting action on almost every cast once we were out of the wind. The fishing went like that for the rest of the day.

We practiced CPR all day long. We would Catch a pickerel, take a Photo and then Release it back so you can come and catch it another day.

Time To Move The Canoe

We stopped as soon as we were out of the wind where the water got calm. Then we caught about 5 or so pickerel. The we picked up anchor and moved all of maybe 20 feet and started again.

The fishing went like that for the rest of the day. And that’s not counting all the chased and the ones that got awayl.

The only thing that stopped us from lasting until dark was me. I caught fish until I could not lift my arm any more. The last fish I caught I had to get Jamie to help me I just could not hold my arm up any more.

I tried to help paddle us back to the car but my arms just couldn’t keep us going straight once we were back out in the wind. But we made it to the car eventually.

We were packing up and getting ready to put the canoe on the car when Jamie said he was ready. I didn’t clue in at first but then he said he was ready to do it all over again.

I am not sure how many fish we caught and released. I like to keep a rough count but not this time we just couldn’t keep up.

All the way home we couldn’t stop talking about the day and what a great time we had. I know both of us were thinking about how soon we could get back there.

We had a few that were the biggest Jamie had caught but I had forgotten my tape measure. The funny thing is that when I got home and was telling my son and wife how great our day was Stephen picked up my scale and asked me what it was. He thought it was a clock or something and then he noticed it had a tape measure built right in.

I have had that scale in my tackle bag for years and never knew it had a built in measuring tape.

As exhausted as I was it still took me hours to get to sleep. I just kept going over the day in my mind. Then I when I did finally get to sleep I am sure I dreamed of another great day on the water.

Filed under: chain pickerel

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