Pickerel

Went looking around for trout or panfish after work yesterday (ok, left a little early!).

Stopped at a new spot in Medford Village, looking at a trip to the Rancocas Creek, locally called
Haynesport Creek. Next to a ballfied, it looks like it's damned up somewhere downstream and I didn't see any NJ F&W trout stocking signs....not good :(

So, stayed and watched some high school ball for a couple of batters and then left for Batsto.

I'm not big on fishing stillwater, except as a last resort near home, where we are littered with ponds.

But Batsto has the Mullica river running down into a "lake" within the park itself, with a spillway/fish ladder
and a good "portage" for kayak/canoes around the spillway. I like to fish this stretch in the spring looking for herring (a good sign that striped bass are "in") and panfish.

Today, I found neither but did run into some toothy critters:




I worked a mickey finn for a while, with no success... now I know why:
these big guys were hanging around in the shallows.

switched to an olive and chartreuse woolly bugger with a weed guard (not really needed, but actually helped
"cull" some smaller pickerel ) and started getting whacked right away.

got a smaller pickerel first... was happy enough, and was getting hits and misses (re: weedguard)
then ran into this one.

Actually was a nice battle on the 3wt, had a 7' tapered leader, believe it was 4x! so, being
careful I brought the pic to the reel and kept working him to the shallows when he'd get life
and zing out the drag. First fw fish I've fought on the reel in a long time.