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Best big pickerel lures

18K views 43 replies 18 participants last post by  NotAtWork 
#1 ·
I have a question for the forum. I already asked Bassman this question, but I'd like everyone's opinion, if possible.
What are your favorite big pickerel lures? There are lots that work, but what are your very best for wall hanger pick? I can't ask you this without giving mine. I've fished for pickerel as my main prey for over thirty years, and have caught many nice ones.
My biggest ever was on a Felmy's eel rigged Texas style and fished slower than many would believe possible on a cold late winter day. I also have great luck with the 5" Tiki Man Wave Worm, which is my current favorite all around lure. I like the fire tiger color and fish it on light line with no leader or weight, rigged Texas style with a 1/0 wide gap hook. I use a smaller hook so that it drops evenly, without a nose dive. The Johnson Silver Minnow is a killer lure that's been around forever and still works just fine. Huge worms rigged Texas style, but with no weight, through the heaviest weeds work great also. 12" isn't too big. I also love the Moss Boss because it goes where other lures would get gunked up. Spinners with huge blades (#8 isn't too big) are excellent along with jigs. Notice that everything I mentioned is weedless. Deep diving cranks work great too. Learn to fish them in shallow water and/or near heavy cover and structure. I often use lures that are designed to dive up to 20' in three or four feet of water.
The up side to this is that every lure I mentioned is also great for both large and smallmouth bass, since they're ambush techniques are similar to pickerel.
Ok, guys, I spilled my guts. your turns, if you please.

Rat Man
 
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#2 ·
My biggest pickerel this time of year have come from a 1/4 oz bucktail (a saltwater version like a Spro) fished under a float, a few feet off the bottom. Put it out and retrieve slowly with small pops of the rod tip to make it dart a little but it will remain in the strike zone for a long time.
 
#4 ·
ive seen that rig used before for crappie. early in the year have you ever tried it??

for me suspended baits during the colder times both early spring and late fall work the best. during the summer i like fishing big spooks, many times my brother will you pink finess and just work it in right under the surface and ive seen him get some nice piks
 
#5 ·
Extra large pickerel (not average size) share the same characteristics as their larger cousin, the northern pike. When you watch TV shows about northern pike fishing they use oversize minnow shaped lures, oversize inline spinners and oversize jigs with large plastic tails. The smaller northerns they catch are about the same size as an extra large pickerel.

I would try this method, but the size of the baits would mean you wouldn't be catching any of the smaller pickerel and most times I just want to catch any size fish. However, if you have a spot you know holds a giant pickerel (they usually hang out in the same location for days or weeks at a time) you may want to size up your bait.
 
#7 ·
Thanks

Thanks, guys, great info.. AJ168, do you tip the bucktail with anything? I've read about this method for crappie, but have never tried it for pickerel. It makes sense, to slow the bait down in the winter and keep it in the strike zone longer.
Rootie, I wouldn't worry about catching only the largest fish on oversized lures. Very often I catch small to average pickerel and largemouths on lures that most would swear were too big for any freshwater fish. Three or four fishing trips ago I caught a 10" largemouth on a very big Dare Devil. Off the top of my head I don't know exactly how big that particular model is, but it has to be near 5" long, plus I had a three inch trailer on it. I've caught tiny pickerel on Spooks, and both tiny pick and bass on very large spinners, with #7 blades.
A very common cause of death among predatory fish like pickerel and bass is trying to swallow prey that is too large for them to handle. They'll sometimes try to swallow prey almost their own size.
 
#9 ·
Thanks, guys, great info.. AJ168, do you tip the bucktail with anything? I've read about this method for crappie, but have never tried it for pickerel. It makes sense, to slow the bait down in the winter and keep it in the strike zone longer.
Rootie, I wouldn't worry about catching only the largest fish on oversized lures. Very often I catch small to average pickerel and largemouths on lures that most would swear were too big for any freshwater fish. Three or four fishing trips ago I caught a 10" largemouth on a very big Dare Devil. Off the top of my head I don't know exactly how big that particular model is, but it has to be near 5" long, plus I had a three inch trailer on it. I've caught tiny pickerel on Spooks, and both tiny pick and bass on very large spinners, with #7 blades.
A very common cause of death among predatory fish like pickerel and bass is trying to swallow prey that is too large for them to handle. They'll sometimes try to swallow prey almost their own size.
I have seen that quite often, more so with pickerel than with largemouths where a small pickerel tries to swallow a fish twice its size. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of how aggressive they are or once in a while they will misjudge the size of prey, especially if they are hungry.
 
#14 ·
I havent tried this yet, keyword there is yet, but this has the potential to get some slobs!

http://www.thebassbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166543

Also the small yum Dancin Eels seem like they would get some picks too. Like I said in the other thread I usually catch them on Zoom Flukes (like pick candy), roostertails, or small bass spinners (like the crappie spins or booyah pond spinnerbait.
 
#15 ·
Good stuff

More good stuff, everyone! First, Bassman, I've used everything you mentioned, ie. the small bass spinners, Flukes, and Rooster Tails. They all work great. I've found that if you add a Lindy jig spinner to an in-line spinner like a Rooster Tail or Mepps it not only stops the line twist but adds to the overall effectivness of the lure. The swim bait that you showed should work great, but I'm a poor man. 20 $ a pop is too rich for my blood. I started experimenting with swimbaits late last year (2008). I have some salt water swim baits, the cheap kind, and I used them with a weedless jig head. Though I haven't caught anything with them yet, I'm sure they'll work. They have a great action, they're very weedless, and In-Fisherman editor Doug Stange swears by them.
Rootie, when a smallish pickerel or bass takes a very large lure I've always supposed that they're only seeing part of the lure, like they catch a small flash, vobration, or something like that. That's just my opinion, and I guess we'll never know unless fish learn to talk.
EddieRider, you speak the truth. The gold Silver Minnow is one of the greatest pickerel lures ever invented. I like the 3/4 oz size with a 4" twin tail trailer. It plows through the weeds and comes up clean better than any "hard" lure besides the Moss Boss, casts like a bullet, you can easily skip it under overhangs and such, and it works great on all predatory fish.
 
#16 ·
Thanks

ACarbone624, a white grub on a jighead is a great lure because it's not only effective, but as cheap as dirt. I ALWAYS fish in weeds and heavy cover, so I have to use a weedless jighead. I've also found purple to be a great color, plus purple is neutral so you can use it on cloudy or clear days.
RBF8489, Mepps are absoulte killer on pickerel. Try a Black Fury. Once when I was land fishing I got lazy and didn't move when I failed to get a bite. I threw everything in the tackle box out there rather than move. (My tackle box is quite huge) Finally I tied on a #3 Black Fury and caught a monster pick on the first cast. I'll admit that maybe one or more of the other lures I ran by him first got him fired up, but the Mepps certainly didn't hurt things. As I mentioned earlier, I'll usually tie on a jig spinner so I don't have to worry about line twist, plus it adds more flash and vibration.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to my thread so far. This is all great info.. I'm glad I found this forum.
 
#17 ·
seen a 4lber caught in march 08 on a 1/8 lead head w/ bluefleck 4in powerbait worm, one slightly smaller w/ rapala dt4 perch color in july 08. bluefleck powerbait is always my go to, its just when i bring a certain friend this past year he has outfished my PB with a 5.9 lb LM bass and the 4lb pick
 
#23 ·
TEKfish4life, though I go on about large baits, my biggest LMB ever was on a tiny 4" grape/firetail jelly worm, I think made by Renagade. I had it rigged on a 1/0 wide gap hook with a little home made clacker rig. (1/16 oz. UltraSteel worm weight and glass beads) It was a 6+ pounder caught on 6lb test fire line in Vorhees summer before last. Plastic worms are one of the best all around fish catchers ever invented, they've been around since before even I fished, they're more versatile than anything else, and they're as cheap as dirt so you're not afraid to throw them where the fish are. My very first lure fish, a LMB, was on a plastic worm. And I totally agree, when freshwater lure fishing in March you'd better be going slower than slow or you're wasting your time. It's difficult sometimes to fish slow enough to be effective... it takes concentration. I have to count, like "I'll turn the reel handle 1/4 a turn every time I count to 30" or something like that.
When the weather's a bit warmer I like to take a jumbo worm, 10 or 12" and rig it Texas style with no hook and hurl it as far into the worst weeds I can find. It drives big pickerel crazy, and bass also. If you don't have worms that big an 8" will work just fine.
I jig worm like you used is a great bait, but in that I always fish in weeds, I can use only the weedless variety of jig head.
 
#24 ·
TEKfish4life, though I go on about large baits, my biggest LMB ever was on a tiny 4" grape/firetail jelly worm, I think made by Renagade. I had it rigged on a 1/0 wide gap hook with a little home made clacker rig. (1/16 oz. UltraSteel worm weight and glass beads) It was a 6+ pounder caught on 6lb test fire line in Vorhees summer before last. Plastic worms are one of the best all around fish catchers ever invented, they've been around since before even I fished, they're more versatile than anything else, and they're as cheap as dirt so you're not afraid to throw them where the fish are. My very first lure fish, a LMB, was on a plastic worm. And I totally agree, when freshwater lure fishing in March you'd better be going slower than slow or you're wasting your time. It's difficult sometimes to fish slow enough to be effective... it takes concentration. I have to count, like "I'll turn the reel handle 1/4 a turn every time I count to 30" or something like that.
When the weather's a bit warmer I like to take a jumbo worm, 10 or 12" and rig it Texas style with no hook and hurl it as far into the worst weeds I can find. It drives big pickerel crazy, and bass also. If you don't have worms that big an 8" will work just fine.
I jig worm like you used is a great bait, but in that I always fish in weeds, I can use only the weedless variety of jig head.
If you like fishing worms that big like 10-12", you'll love these :

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...&itemTemplate=wish-listdetails&cmCat=Readonly

I recently found them on Cabelas when I was getting my wish list ready for what I'm buying in a month to get ready for the March thaw (atleast hopefully March). I think with a 2/0 or 3/0 weightless these will work awesome for big bass and pickeral, would do exactly what the big plastic worms are imitating.
 
#25 ·
Thanks

Thanks for the tip, Bassman. That's not a terrible price either. I just did the rough draft of my Bass Pro Shop dream order. It's shocking how the prices on everything have skyrocketed. I'm going to fill out a similar draft from Cabelas and compare prices. I may also do the same with Gander Mountain. I'l report back to the fourm with my findings. Of course, this will be an unscientific comparison in that it'll just the the stuff that I buy, but it'll be something to go by. My guess is that it's just a sign of the times and the drastic price increases will be everywhere.
 
#30 ·
Stuff

With nothing more than a quick glance at a few items I'd say that all three look just about the same. No one seems to have an advantage, or at least a large one. I'll have to do some real homework to settle this.
Thanks for the info, Tapout. I haven't used Roadrunners much but I notice that most of the guys here like them a lot. I'll have to buy a few and give them a fair shot. They do look like they have to work. I know people like buzzbaits but I just never have any luck at all with them. Strangely enough, when I buzz a spinner I do just fine. Some of my best fish have come that way. I suspect that it's just a confidence thing, but buzzbaits just don't produce for me. I'll have to keep trying until I figure it out.
 
#31 ·
With nothing more than a quick glance at a few items I'd say that all three look just about the same. No one seems to have an advantage, or at least a large one. I'll have to do some real homework to settle this.
Thanks for the info, Tapout. I haven't used Roadrunners much but I notice that most of the guys here like them a lot. I'll have to buy a few and give them a fair shot. They do look like they have to work. I know people like buzzbaits but I just never have any luck at all with them. Strangely enough, when I buzz a spinner I do just fine. Some of my best fish have come that way. I suspect that it's just a confidence thing, but buzzbaits just don't produce for me. I'll have to keep trying until I figure it out.
Road Runners are awesome, I buy them from Cabelas (I buy the heads 20 for $9.99, then I add 15 crappie thunder bodies and 15 panfish assassin bodies for 5$ for total for the 30, comes out to 16$ for 20 road runners) just a word of advice to help you save $$ on them. Also as they say on the package, "You can't fish them wrong as long as you fish them slow!", steady slow retrieve should work nicely with them, I love them and have caught everything from Crappie to Musky on them and everything in between.(7lb Walleye, 2 Hybrid Stripers (unheard of in NEPA) and a 9LB Channel Cat to name a few)
 
#32 ·
Thanks

Thanks for a good tip, Bassman. You've read my posts and you know that saving money is important to me. It's not that I'm that poor, it's just how I was raised. If I'm not mistaken, they have weedless Roadrunners, don't they? Bass Pro has something they call a stick guard with which you can make almost any lure weedless. It's just a piece of soft plastic that you put around the neck of your jig or whatever, then run the point through the other side to protect it. Anyway, it's about time I got into Roadrunners.
I'm watching Roland Martin right now and he's using that Spro BBZ-1 shad swimbait. It's an awesome looking lure. Maybe I'll have to break down and buy one with my tax return. It's just so hard for me to part with twenty bucks for a lure.
 
#33 ·
Thanks for a good tip, Bassman. You've read my posts and you know that saving money is important to me. It's not that I'm that poor, it's just how I was raised. If I'm not mistaken, they have weedless Roadrunners, don't they? Bass Pro has something they call a stick guard with which you can make almost any lure weedless. It's just a piece of soft plastic that you put around the neck of your jig or whatever, then run the point through the other side to protect it. Anyway, it's about time I got into Roadrunners.
I'm watching Roland Martin right now and he's using that Spro BBZ-1 shad swimbait. It's an awesome looking lure. Maybe I'll have to break down and buy one with my tax return. It's just so hard for me to part with twenty bucks for a lure.
Yes I have read your posts and I am the same exact way you are, I try to get the most bang for the buck that I can get especially with lures. With line/reels I usually spend the most, with rods I'm more of an ugly stick lite or cheaper split blank rods like St. Croix. Bass Pro makes there own series of Roadrunners that they call Stump Jumpers, believe me its pretty hard to get a Roadrunner hung up on something unless the line wraps around it, they usually come off what there stuck on pretty easily because of only having 1 hook. But usually like a spinner bait they will bounce/roll off the cover instead of getting hung up. They are an awesome lure, I already have 25 of them rigged up for the new season, and more will be coming.

I saw that episode too where hes fishing close to the dam and has that fish hit the swim bait and he misses it, I dont know if I could talk myself into spending 20$ for one lure when I can get like 50 plastics for the same thing. Or 3-4 cranks that do basically the same thing, they are very nice baits though. Just with spending most of my time in heavier cover on shore, cant talk myself into it.
 
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