I don't fish many lakes with pickerel, but the fish I posted from this one lake are phenomenal when it comes to panfish. Problem is the pickerel I lose lures to like this one:


I use Sevenstrand Salt Water leader wire for different things but never as a leader to small jigs thinking it might put the strike off. NOPE! it worked fine and stopped any more lure losses to toothy fish. These were caught with the wire attached directly to the small jig heads.



I'm think'n to shorten the leader length from 3" to 1 3/4" to lessen small bass losses when they jump. Lost four bass yesterday to leader jigs but none to straight ties.

Awesome fish. Love those Bluegill slabs. Good job.

We have them in Caddo Lake and also in a private lake I get to fish. I keep wire leaders in my boat for the days they are extremely active. They cut 80# braid better than any pair of scissors I have ever owned.

Solid post and solid fish. Good job Senko Sam!



Side Note: Never caught a Pickerel.

Great report and nice fish. It looks like you have a good solution for the chain pickerel. If you want something a little more flexible than solid wire try Cortland Toothy Critter tie-able wire.

Checked it out. Will definitely try some. A heck of a lot easier than tying one solid wire leader per jig head!

Update: I shortened the wire to around 2" per jig and it caught fish of all sizes and 4 species.

Great post and nice catches!

Thanks everyone! Just one more reason I like sharing discoveries and tips knowing the effort is appreciated. Great forum/ great members!

If you don't mind my asking where are you catching the pickerels? I used to fish for them in VA and would like to get into some more. They can be quite sporty on light tackle and they are also pretty good eating.

Nice fish.