First pickerel on the fly (walleye for youse 'mericuns)

Willi & Sue wrote in message ...
Peter Charles wrote:

Well it was a long time coming . . .
After a minute or so, up it
comes and the unmistakeable head of a pickerel surfaces, about 20" and
around 2.5 pounds. Reach down and slip the hook with the forceps and
off he swims.

Felt like a kid with his first bluegill . . . .


That was a GREAT eating fish you released. Walleyes are usually a pretty
tough target for fly fishermen.

Willi



Tell me about it, as I released the fish, all I could think of was,
"There goes lunch." If I had had a frypan and the fixin's with me,
that boy would've been fried.

BTW, I'm getting a sneaky hunch that PNW winter steelheading
techniques may be the ticket for these fish -- with the addition of
pulsing the swing to impart a rise and fall to the fly. Next time I
go back, it'll be with the Loop and a set of shooting heads.

Peter Charles wrote:
snip
I'm getting a sneaky hunch that PNW winter steelheading
techniques may be the ticket for these fish -- with the addition of
pulsing the swing to impart a rise and fall to the fly. Next time I
go back, it'll be with the Loop and a set of shooting heads.

That's the fun of it, isn't it - figuring out what works and doesn't? I had an
interesting time at the "secret spot" yesterday. After switching between quite a
few flies during a BWO hatch, I was casting to a pod of trout and all of them
would look at what I was casting, but wouldn't take. Then I started casting the
same fly (#22 Griffith's Gnat) to individual trout and gave them each three or
four good looks. Still no takers. Then I spotted a decent sized trout a little
closer to me by itself. The first cast gained a lot more interest than the pod
had shown, and the second produced the hook up. What that fish saw that the
others did not, I'll never know. I'd like to think it was a much smarter fish.


Fun side story: When I arrived there at 9:00, the sun had yet to hit the water.
There was a guy from Boston there standing on the bank and looking at the water.
When I asked how he was doing, he told me there were *no* fish in a tone of
total disgust. I said my eyes weren't that great and I'd have to get a closer
look (knowing they just finished the autumn stocking), to which he replied he
had better-than-great vision and I could just take his word for it, as he
wandered back to his car mumbling. I saw at least a dozen fish within my first
few minutes, and dozens more after the first rays of sun hit the water. By 10:00
the fish were actively feeding just below the surface, and by 11:00 there was
active feeding at the surface on a nice hatch. The moral: If you're going to
travel several hours to fish, at least fish for a few hours before you claim
"the grapes are sour." But never *EVER* fish at the secret spot, because those
fish only reveal themselves to a chosen few. ;-)
--
TL,
Tim
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

From: "Tim J."

But never *EVER* fish at the secret spot, because those
fish only reveal themselves to a chosen few. ;-)

And we know who they are.bseg

BTW, I didn't tell you yesterday, but the invasion may have begun. Saturday I
encountered a lovely lady from South Carolina fishing in, *gasp*, the secret
spot. How long will it take for the word to spread north and those rascals from
tons will be underfoot. At first, I thought that Laurie, ( the aforementioned
lovely lady), was indeed from tons, but when I realized she wasn't speaking in
lower case, I knew I was mistaken. G


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

Peter Charles wrote:

Tell me about it, as I released the fish, all I could think of was,
"There goes lunch." If I had had a frypan and the fixin's with me,
that boy would've been fried.

BTW, I'm getting a sneaky hunch that PNW winter steelheading
techniques may be the ticket for these fish -- with the addition of
pulsing the swing to impart a rise and fall to the fly. Next time I
go back, it'll be with the Loop and a set of shooting heads.

Sounds like the action of a jig, the number one walleye lure I used when
I was growing up. The important (and difficult) thing is getting the
fly down to the bottom. IMO, that's what makes them so difficult to
catch on flies. Most of the year they're at depths that can't
effectively be fished with conventional fly tackle. (I'm speaking of
lakes here, I've never fished for them in a stream or river).

Willi

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 18:31:35 GMT, "Tim J."
wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:
snip
I'm getting a sneaky hunch that PNW winter steelheading
techniques may be the ticket for these fish -- with the addition of
pulsing the swing to impart a rise and fall to the fly. Next time I
go back, it'll be with the Loop and a set of shooting heads.

That's the fun of it, isn't it - figuring out what works and doesn't? I had an
interesting time at the "secret spot" yesterday. After switching between quite a
few flies during a BWO hatch, I was casting to a pod of trout and all of them
would look at what I was casting, but wouldn't take. Then I started casting the
same fly (#22 Griffith's Gnat) to individual trout and gave them each three or
four good looks. Still no takers. Then I spotted a decent sized trout a little
closer to me by itself. The first cast gained a lot more interest than the pod
had shown, and the second produced the hook up. What that fish saw that the
others did not, I'll never know. I'd like to think it was a much smarter fish.


Nah, that ain't it.
The fly wasn't dragging that time, 'cuz you didn't have to cast as far.

hth

/daytripper (a free r.o.f.f diagnostic service ;-)

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 18:31:35 GMT, "Tim J."
wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:
snip
I'm getting a sneaky hunch that PNW winter steelheading
techniques may be the ticket for these fish -- with the addition of
pulsing the swing to impart a rise and fall to the fly. Next time I
go back, it'll be with the Loop and a set of shooting heads.

That's the fun of it, isn't it - figuring out what works and doesn't? I had an
interesting time at the "secret spot" yesterday. After switching between quite a
few flies during a BWO hatch, I was casting to a pod of trout and all of them
would look at what I was casting, but wouldn't take. Then I started casting the
same fly (#22 Griffith's Gnat) to individual trout and gave them each three or
four good looks. Still no takers. Then I spotted a decent sized trout a little
closer to me by itself. The first cast gained a lot more interest than the pod
had shown, and the second produced the hook up. What that fish saw that the
others did not, I'll never know. I'd like to think it was a much smarter fish.


Nah, that ain't it.
The fly wasn't dragging that time, 'cuz you didn't have to cast as far.

hth

/daytripper (a free r.o.f.f diagnostic service ;-)

Peter Charles wrote:
JR wrote in message ...

Joel Axelrad wrote:

Only the nutty Canadians call Walleye -
Pickerel.
A Walleye is a giant member of the perch family.
A Pickerel is a mini member of the Pike family.

Yes, all that's clear. The question was, if Canadians call walleye
pickerel, what do they call pickerel?

JR


And before I get jumped on, the etymology of pickerel is "little
pike".

Some Canadian fishing writers have made it clear that our usage of
pickerel is incorrect, but still, it is part of our fishing history.
We have numerous place names with "Pickerel" in them, in reference to
Stizostedion vitreum, not Esox variants. "Walleyed pike" was probably
the original term, with walleyed meaning bulging eyes,

I always thought the name wall from the white glow (wall eye) that a
Walleye's eyes get when you look at them from certain angles.

Willi

chain pickerel are frequently called "jack" in eastern nc...

George Adams wrote:

From: rw


Pickerel are a southern fish. They don't range into Canada. Therefore,
the Canuckistanis have no name for them.


I'm pretty sure someone's going to call me on this.) :-)


Consider youself called. According to A.J. McClane's Fishermen's Encyclopedia,
the Chain Pickerel is found from Eastern Canada through the Lake Ontario
drainage sothward, east of the Appalachians to Florida, and also in the
Mississipi Valley, as far south as Texas.

IIRC, in Canuckistan they are sometimes called "jacks".

chain pickerel are frequently called "jack" in eastern nc...

George Adams wrote:

From: rw


Pickerel are a southern fish. They don't range into Canada. Therefore,
the Canuckistanis have no name for them.


I'm pretty sure someone's going to call me on this.) :-)


Consider youself called. According to A.J. McClane's Fishermen's Encyclopedia,
the Chain Pickerel is found from Eastern Canada through the Lake Ontario
drainage sothward, east of the Appalachians to Florida, and also in the
Mississipi Valley, as far south as Texas.

IIRC, in Canuckistan they are sometimes called "jacks".

George Adams wrote:
From: rw


Pickerel are a southern fish. They don't range into Canada. Therefore,
the Canuckistanis have no name for them.


I'm pretty sure someone's going to call me on this.) :-)


Consider youself called. According to A.J. McClane's Fishermen's Encyclopedia,
the Chain Pickerel is found from Eastern Canada through the Lake Ontario
drainage sothward, east of the Appalachians to Florida, and also in the
Mississipi Valley, as far south as Texas.

IIRC, in Canuckistan they are sometimes called "jacks".

Nope, you don't recall correctly. Jack is just another name commonly
used for northern pike. When I was a kid in Saskatchewan, just about
everyone I knew who fished called pike jacks. Now that I am older, I
call them hammer handles, slough sharks, and snot rockets.

The small pike (pickerel) do make it into Canada, but only in very
southern regions. I would say their distribution is southern, but that
perspective may not be shared by someone from Florida. One species does
occur in the Atlantic provinces. They are not terribly abundant, and I
don't think they are in any demand as a sport fish in Canada. They do
have a variety of common names, such as grass pickerel, grass pike, mud
pike, etc., but these aren't used a whole lot since they are not a very
common sports fish.

Canadian know full well that walleye (the big perch) are not really a
member of the pike family, we just don't really give a **** and keep
calling them pickerel anyway.

Tim Lysyk