How to Ice Fish For Pickerel
Ice fishing in many northern American locations would not be the same if not for pickerel. This fish species can be caught easily if you know what you are doing and can turn an otherwise slow day on the ice into a fun one. Chances are that whatever lake, pond or river inlet you choose, pickerel inhabit it. Here are some tips for how to catch pickerel while ice fishing.
Instructions
-
How To Ice Fish For Pickerel
-
1
When fishing for pickerel, the time of day doesn't matter as they will hit a shiner from morning until nightfall. Pickerel can hit in spurts, meaning there will be a flurry of action and then a down time, or they will attack your shiners with regularity during the day.
-
2
Hook your shiners right behind the dorsal fin on the back, an inch from the end of the tail. Medium-size shiners are sufficient to attract pickerel. Pickerel are pigs and will sometimes eat like there is no tomorrow. Pickerel have been caught on a shiner and found to have a full-grown sunfish still in their gullet! They also will attack and eat other smaller pickerel.
-
-
3
Concentrate your tip-ups where you are having success. Ice fishing is all about location, regardless of the species you're targeting. If you have six tip-ups in the water and two are seeing no hits at all, move them to other areas. Every time you catch a pickerel, grab a tip-up that has not been producing and set it up 10 yards from your last catch.
-
4
Set your shiners shallow. Pickerel will grab a shiner that is right under the ice and, when fishing in this manner, you won't have to worry about measuring your line to have the bait a foot off the bottom. You also avoid dealing with weeds in which your shiner can become entangled. You will find that you can catch pickerel with the bait just 2 feet beneath the ice.
-
5
If you get a bite but the shiner is gone, or if you have the pickerel on for a brief time but the hook isn’t set properly, don’t sweat it. Pickerel will return. Reset the tip-up with another shiner and don’t stray too far from it. That flag will be up before you know it in most cases.
-
6
Don’t be fooled if the flag trips on a tip-up but the line isn’t moving when you get to it. Pickerel will often grab a shiner and go into the weeds to eat it. Just because the line isn’t flying off the reel doesn’t mean a pickerel isn’t home. Set the hook if the line doesn't continue to not move and be ready. Even large pickerel, those over 20 inches, may not necessarily take off after grabbing your shiner. Take nothing for granted!
-
7
Watch out for those teeth. Pickerel have tiny razor-sharp teeth designed to grab prey and not let go. Your fingers will bleed for quite a while if you put them in the pickerel’s mouth after hauling one onto the ice. Stay clear and use a hook remover or needle-nose pliers to get the hook out. Pickerel almost never swallow a hook, so they can be removed and the fish sent back down the hole or brought home for dinner.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Chain pickerel is the larger of the two pickerel species you will find in northern waters; the other is the much smaller grass pickerel.
- Photo Credit www.classicnatureprints.com
