Fly Fishing Pickerel In The Weeds

Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 5:36 am

Fishing pickerel in the weeds I love fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon, brook trout and smallmouth bass but it gets really exciting when I take my fly rod Chain pickerel fishing. It seems that when I am fishing the other species here in New Brunswick I have to pay close attention to the flies I am using or I just might get skunked but not with pickerel. They seem to attack just about anything.

Fly Fishing Pickerel In The Weeds

My favorite place to fly fishing for pickerel is the weeds.I like to look for openings in the weed and then I like to cast my fly right into the opening. The anticipation keeps me tense most of the day. So much for fishing being relaxing.

The weeds however present a great opportunity for getting snagged up so I like to use flies that are somewhat weedless. I use a loop of heavy weight mono. I can add it while tying the fly or even after if I am careful. I use it to make a little weed guard so the fly doesn’t get caught up so much on the weeds.

Nothing ruins a great fly cast like landing and hooking a weed immediately but a weed guard helps.

Spring Pickerel Fun

When I do get the chance to fish pickerel in the early spring I like to use streamers and if I have a choice I like to use red and white. It just seems to drive them over the edge. I use the same streamers I use when spring fishing Atlantic salmon.

When a pickerel goes for one of these streamers you know they were interested. But some times they wait until they get right to the boat before they explode and soak you. Too cool.

When they follow the fly to the boat without taking and I know they followed I will use the figure eight just like I would for big northern pike.

Summer And Early Fall Pickerel

Once the weeds are growing in the places I like to fish for pickerel the fun really starts. I like to use my float tube and paddle along the weeds.

I can hardly contain my excitement when I cast a fly right on the edge of the weeds and see a big V coming from different directions. I sometimes find it hard to wait until the pickerel actually gets to the fly and sometimes I yank it right out of their grasp before they can close that big mouth.

I like to tie leeches but I still like to include a bit of red when tying them. When I take the time to make them weedless they perform much better and I tend to get a lot less stressed when the weeds are really think, like they get late summer.

Do Remember That First Aid Kit

The last time I was fishing pickerel, just a couple of weeks ago one tried to eat my hand but only got as far as the first knuckles. Glad it wasn’t a huge pickerel or my day would have been done.

There was blood and it was mine. Before I got the blood wiped off I was wondering if my day of fishing was over in the first 5 minutes of fishing. I survived but a bandaidÂ or three would have been very helpful.

I now have bandaids in my fishing vest at all times.

Tagged with: fishing the weeds • fly fishing • fly fishing pickerel • pickerel fishing