Well I went to this small 100 acre lake in VA the other weekend and me and my buddy were doing some fishing for crappie/bass, I was using a mepps roster tail type lure and hung a 2 pound chain pickeral. I was just wondering what types a bait and lures are best for catching these fish because it was pretty fun fight on a small ultralite rod and if the bass aren't biting I'd still like to have fun catching something!

Pickerel will readily hit anything, from topwaters to bottom crawlers and everything in between. Expect biteoffs, just like pike.

If I had to pick one lure I'd give a very slight edge to spinnerbaits, but really, it's slight, they'll hit anything in your tackle box.

I catch pickerel on just about everything.  But they seem to be especially attacted to a steady, flashing retrieves.  For this, Mepps Aglia in-line spinners are my all-time top producer.

I tend to run into them most when I'm using moving, sub-surface hardbaits.

Spinnerbaits, rattletraps, cranks, jerkbaits, etc.

And a little bit of chatreuse seems to make them mad

The best way to catch them is to throw something with a hook near shallow weeds  

Mepps spinners all the way. They also seem to take liking to 6" blue/ blue flake powerworms...but they WILL hit whatever you throw at em usually!!

Thanks guys...yeah I think next time I go if the LM aren't biting I'm gonna throw a few mepps and spinners and see what happens

grey and black laminate yum dinger, fished like a jerkbait, drives the pickeral crazy around here. I've actually stopped fishing dingers because i get so many pickeral i don't get to catch bass with them

I caught my biggest Pickeral jigging a weedless silver spoon from a canoe straight down into some weeds.

my local pickerel seem to love chartreuse spinnerbaits, chrome lipless cranks, and spooks

Daredevil's and other spoons

I usually catch them on rattletraps, spinnerbaits, mepps spinners, or if you want to have some fun tie on a plastic lizard with just a hook, drag it across the water/ over lilypads and watch them thrash the hell out of it.  They will hit just about anything though.

If I'm looking to catch pickeral, I'll definitely throw a daredevil.

I caught a nice chain pickeral this afternoon about 20" long. Ran the drag out on my reel a bunch of times, spooled with 6lb mono. Wanted to insert a pic but it is too large, will have to resize. Caught in Sturbridge MA. Got to see how well my newer rod and reel performed with a larger fish on, nice to have a better quality set-up than in the past.

Is that a Pike or a Pickerel?  Looked like a pike to me but I haven't seen much of either in 20 years.

Big Mepps Spinners, 1 oz Silver Rattle Traps, Johnson's Spoons  

Forgot to mention I used a 1/4oz white and silver rooster tail for the above fish. If the rain ever stops here I hope to hit some more!

I used to catch alot of pickerel.  All the lures mentioned above, especially the daredevil worked for me.  

I did really well with a heddon dying flutter prop bait. but then that specific lure was a wonder lure for me.  It caught everything.  I lost it in the jaws of a pickerel and over the years have  bought a number of the exact same model.  For some reason no matter how I tune it none have ever come close to that one special lure.