Getting pickerel IN THE BOAT.

[mallard]

Ok, I really don't care how big the fish I catch are. I go for as many fish as I can.

I often use a 4 inch (blue/green) ribbed worm. I get bass biting it, and sometimes pickerel.

The hooks I use are not very big (I don't have the numbered size.) The pickerel will bite, I'll jerk up, be pulling in, then as I lift him out of the water to get in the canoe he flips off. I catch about 1 pickerel per 5 that bite because of this.

The hook is very sharp and I have no problem getting bass in the boat. Is the hook even being set, do they just really want that worm and clinging on? Or are they just masters at flipping and unhooking themselves?

I don't have this problem with treble hooks, only single hooks, thanks.

[eddiefebuary]

I fish out of a canoe most of the time and i love getting pickerel because they are all over the place. Well any ways i think that bass dont slip of the hook is because A) they weigh more putting more pressure on the hook
B) bass from my experience take the lure deeper in the throat making for better hook sets
I have lost alot of pickerel because ive noticed that they only bight with the tip of thier mouth then once they like it they take it all the way down. To solve the problem of them doing this wait a little bit before setting the hook. Once ive got a pickerel on the line i reel in hard keeping alot of pressure on him so its hard for him to get any slack on the line. Now once i have him close to the boat i use a landing net. If u dont a friend with you to help with this or you dont have a net getting them in the boat can be tricky. The first thing i do if i dont have a net is i bring him quickly into the shallowest water i can get to. If your in deep water then bring him close to the surface. Then bring him right up to the side of the boat and reach in and grab him. Be sure not to go near his teeth ive had some unpleasant bites from pickerel. Once you have him in a nice tight grip raise both your rod and him at the same time. And becareful typically after the fish comes out of the water he starts to thrash alot. BUt once you have him over the boat you got him.

[mallard]

lol yeah, the first pickerel I ever caught I wasn't expecting teeth. Luckily it was a little guy, maybe 8 inches.
And I know what you mean about thrashing. They are very vicious when they have energy and try to bite you with all their will, once it took me like 5 min to unhook one even with pliers because I had to stay so far away from his mouth. Had to put him in the water to breathe, then try again.

I am definately going to try that method sometimes, sounds like it can work unless the pickerel panicks when it sees your hand and spits it out.

[catfishtonyd]

Pickeral are famous for throwing a hook. About all you can really do is use a good sharp hook, get a good hookset, and this might be your problem since you say you don't know what size hook you use, use a big enough hook. A pickerals mouth is boneier than a bass's but a good sharp hook will still nail him.

To pick a pickeral up, simply grasp him firmly behind the gill plates.

[MrMusky]

the first picerel i ever caught was a 27 inch five pounder. i have a leader on the line so thats how i got him into the canoe. i hate when they roll all around in the net. they always seem to roll arounf while i find that bass never do that

[sabass]

pickerel have a very hard mouth, you'll need sharp hooks, line with very little stretch (braid or fluerocarbon) and a somewhat stiff rod. Give it a good hookset initially, then when the fish is about halfway to the boat, go ahead and give it another good tug. With the setup I mentioned, and a couple solid hooksets per fish, you shouldn't be losing as many pickerel as you have, but because of there hard mouth, it is inevitable to lose pickerel.

[ryan7261]

Hey Archer;

up here we catch them all the time and some guy's prefer to catch them over bass. I don't know what they are thinking but hey. anyways you got to let them run with the hook a little longer some times they will do a double bite taking the hook a little deeper. This is the time to rip his lips off! also to get around the teeth there is a move called the paralyzer pinch the picky a few inches back from behind the eyes and squeeze it just stuns the fish into submission. And you can deal with them from there.


Â*Robby.

[n2b]

set the hook like you are setting it into the biggest bass of your life. ;D

[jglassguy]

Just like Rob has posted, many times a hard roofed mouth on a "toothy critter" require a really sharp hook, I'd get in the practise of taking a cheapie grooved hook sharpner ( kmart or wallyworld has em for couple bucks)
and make sure that hook is so sharp it wont drag across your thumbnail as you move it, it should dig in one spot and stay there.
After the initial hookset, a few extra pumps wouldn't hurt to ensure proper hookset. I'd make the first hookset real hard on any fish, a few half pumps if you realize its a pickerel.
After that I'd stay away from pumping hard again, it may pop out if the fish is half way to the shore or boat and decides to turn and dive, which most try Â*8)

[Bin]

jut got one of those sharpeners ,and it works great

[Bladerunner]

i guess that's what i caught this week, a pickerel,, never caught one before. he ended up swallowing my tube bait i was using, but since he was flipping around so much he was able to dislodge it himself, which is good cause i wasnt about to stick my hand near those teeth

[Rob Mak]

ohh come on jimmbo lip him like a man!!! :

zilla is right grab him in the back of the head /gill area.

zooker

[redneck13]

Yeah,like afew have already said , I grap him right behind the gill plates.Seems to work( man , they are slimey ) . If I let him loose in the bottom of the boat he goes berzerk.