Pickerel-Proof a texas or wacky rigged senko on light line

[thomaskgrosvenor]

Went back to one of the spots along the Whippany River where I had some of the hook bite offs (originally I was looking for bass) and used the same light set-up but added about 5" worth of a AFW knottable black nylon coated steel leader. This time when fishing the senko around the vegetation that looked like underwater evergreen bushes I got some aggressive strikes but I failed to set the hook, then finally I managed to set the hook on one pretty big pickerel.

So as far as presenting the senko to pickerel around the vegetation, the light steel leader did not to seem to deter them from biting and held up well to their attacks. It was interesting to see how their teeth scraped away the nylon coating of the leader just above the hook knot.

Remains to be seen how the bass will react, though. I prefer to fish for bass first but hope to be able to catch both bass and pickerel effectively in areas where both species are congregating simultaneously. Thank you for your advice/suggestions. Perhaps being informed about a new place I am fishing would be a good idea as well.