well went out  today got a few small bass  nothing worth posting  but decided to try out a new walmart  small spinner blade  and first cast near weeds  i get this nice  pickeral

one more pic

last one

nice fish, bet that put up a great fight on that ultralight rig.

Pickeral, on matched tackle, are one of the gamest fish out there; Really worth going after. I miss them.

I live in a small lake community in northern NJ and our lake used to have a lot of pickerel, but no one has caught one in like 5 years  > there is another lake about 5 minutes away though that has plenty of pickerel, but we don't go much, we just go to our lake and catch 1 lb bass all day  

Is it possible to locate and target pickerel? What baits besides the typical bass baits would they hit? I've caught one before and it was a much better fight than I ever realized. Thoughts anyone?

Nice big Pickerel there btw!

Is it possible to locate and target pickerel? What baits besides the typical bass baits would they hit? I've caught one before and it was a much better fight than I ever realized. Thoughts anyone?

Most of my pickerel have been caught on weed flats in the Finger Lakes. I couldn't possibly target them on those lakes. On those flats you might catch a pickerel from any spot you'd get a bass and vice versa.

Pickerel will readily take any lure that a bass will. If I had to choose one I'd give a slight edge to spinnerbaits. The last time I was fishing those flats I caught pickerel on a Chatterbait.

I have always though that pickerel fight noticeably better than largemouth of similar size, or actually, some largemouth of larger size as well.

I think the Pickerel is an under appreciated fish.  I find them in shallow coves and weedlines near creek inlets almost all year.  they don't seem to leave the coves for most of the year. Just tie on a Husky Jerk and look out.