Trip Tuesday

[tjm]

I looked up the various pickerels on the USGS site and see the chains are native in south east Mo and the grass also, the grass pickerel don't get quite as far west as I am by their map.   .

[Johnsfolly]

35 minutes ago, tjm said:

Lived less than five miles from the "shad factory" for ~ten years not even  aware of it until an article was published in a fly fishing magazine about people coming there from all over to hit the shad runs.

I went to college in Bethlehem PA and was just 25 minutes from the Delaware and did not once try to catch a shad in the eight years that I lived there. Went up to the Susquehanna River this spring and caught hickory shad and had a blast. Now I regret not taking advantage of that fishing opportunity.

[tjm]

I believe the ones in the Palmer River are American Shad-3' long- 5-9# and screaming long runs according legend. I made several of those "you should bee here yesterday" trips after I learned about the fishery and never did see one caught, but heard some tales and tied some darts. Have seen the shad jumping up the ladder to the old pond and guys dip netting the bait sized young (might have been ale wives) as they went down the falls. You should google the historical shad industry  in the US. It was once our biggest export, iirc.  The Potomac and the Susquehanna both figured large in shad production,  they had "shad wars" in Pa.  I remember reading that one year on the Potomac 995,000 barrels of salt were used just curing the shad, early 1800s. 

[Johnsfolly]

3 hours ago, tjm said:

I believe the ones in the Palmer River are American Shad-3' long- 5-9# and screaming long runs according legend.  The Potomac and the Susquehanna both figured large in shad production.

I can recall in PA shad roe being sold all over in the spring. I haven't caught an american. The 2 lb hickories put up a great fight and I cam only imagine what a 6 lb americam would be like.  

They are pretty cool fish that is in a recovery period.  I hope to tangle with the guys for mamy years in the future.

Sorry for hijacking tbis thread 😌.

[tjm]

2 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Sorry for hijacking tbis thread

Me too; it doesn't take much to get me off on a tangent.

[Dkman]

A pretty fish, looks like a mini tarpon

[Johnsfolly]

On 8/3/2018 at 8:51 AM, Dkman said:

A pretty fish, looks like a mini tarpon

They are called poor man's tarpon. Hit the bait hard, pull hard, and often jump. I only fished twice for them. Caught a few the first trip and 20 the next evening. Fished with 15 of my closest friends 😌that second evening. Fish would get caught up and down the line. A great time.

[tjm]

Those guys in MA said that if you hooked one to shout "fish on" and every one would reel up and get out of the way, they said you'd have to follow the  fish on most runs. A guy said he ran about 500' down stream and in the water to the wader tops, all his backing out and then broke off, fish story I bet.

I never caught the river with more than a few fish in it, apparently they hang in brackish water for days or weeks til all the stars line up and then get their business done in just a day or two. Short river, guess less than fifteen miles from salt to spawn, but that's a guess only.

[Jacob McIntosh]

On 7/28/2018 at 12:17 PM, tjm said:

Wow! I just learned something, I never knew there were pickerel in MO., never mind in a small branch like Crane.

I used to fly fish for pickerel regular in RI/MA  ponds and lakes; almost always in weeds and lily pads. Once caught a ~9"  pickerel on a Mickey Finn and as I pulled it in a 18-20" pickerel swallowed it; full sight maybe 12 feet from me.  I just sniped the tippet. They must be 30% mouth.  Best way to avoid the cut off that I found is to use tippet small enough to pull in between their teeth like dental flossing (7-8x-6x?) or a short (9'") steel tippet. Retie the fly/lure after every fish. Don't recall ever seeing a pickerel in the streams that fed or ran out of those ponds except the  4" and under. I never thought of them as shy fish, the weed cover would account for that though.

I've caught lots of them in a creek smaller than crane creek it's also in northern stone county 

[tjm]

Jacob, were they the grass pickerel that Johnsfolly showed or the chain pickerel he mentioned being in the 11Pt?