Pickerel ... Fly Fishing

[Leif]

Originally Posted by Buschwacker

I hunt and fish primarily in southern jersey ... want to start fly fishing for pickerel ... need advice on rod, reel, line, backing, flies, etc. Thank you in advance.

Pickerel are a great fish to catch on a fly. I would always target them in Deal lake when they were plentyful and it was a blast. Pickerel are one of my favorite fresh water fish. Takanassee is productive like Mikey said and my son and I have had great sucess there fly fishing.

There is a killer fly for Pickerel...I discovered it years ago while fishing in the catskills. The fly is the bead head purple crystal bugger. Pickerel can't resist it. The other is a yellow deer hair streamer.

I use an Orvis 7ft 9in 5wt rod with weight forward floating line as mentioned above. The reel is a Orvis Battenkill Bar stock for 3-5 wt line. The backing is 75 yds of 20lb dacron. The shorter rod will allow you to cast under hanging branches and tight conditions.


Leif