No work = fish beat down

[Chrisper4694]

didn't have off monday, but had off today! turned out to be a much better day anyway! near perfect conditions. seasonably cool with plenty of cloud cover till noon and just a very slight breeze most of the time. whacked up plenty of fish until the sun took over the sky around noon. shot a few stupid cormorants with my pretend fishing rod rifle between hookups blaka blaka! didn't almost fall out of the boat, face plant the side of the boat or lose anything this time! 5 stars!

target was smallies but was catching nothing but largies at first, nice ones 16-17", i thought if i didn't take any pictures of them they'd go away and let the smallies come play. I was half right, they went away but instead of a smallie i got the fattest damn pickerel i've ever seen in my life! I've seen 1 longer in person but skinny. this sucker was 26.5" and just a glutenous slob!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on if you like them or not...this fish had trouble swimming away. as soon as i netted it it didn't look too good so i left it in there for a while and eventually just snapped it's pic and put it back by it's tail and tried reviving it like a musky slightly 'twisting' it back and forth slowly. After about a minute it swam away kind of and i couldn't see it anymore so i went on my way. about 5 minutes later i saw birds mauling it to death on the surface...

Went back to trying for smallies and finally got on them pretty good but not really the size i was after, cause i'm greedy and want a 23 incher! a few small ones 14" or so and a couple of nice ones 16-17". broke one of my rules and 'left fish to find fish' thinking i could find bigger ones schooled up. ended up finding one 18.5" very nice fish but that was it. clouds disappeared around noon and that seemed to pretty much kill the bite.

didn't someone recently say there's no fall bite in NJ?...

[NorthJerzyG]

That's a SLOB pickerel!! Nice smallies to!! Yup, def no fall bite in NJ!!

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

Great report, nice catch.

[Jigman13]

I've seen big darts before but I don't think I've ever seen one that girthy. That's crazy.

If same place we were talking about a couple wks ago, we had a big dart do the same thing. Went belly up after a short fight. Big fish. Fat as f*ck

[Chrisper4694]

Probably the same fish! The damn thing just didn't want to live anymore...hey, I tried

[NJSquatch]

I knew I should have played hookie! Very nice.

Re: Fat A$$ pickerel. Gluttony is one of the deadly sins.

[Eskimo]

.


The secret to your fishing success must be the hat!
The fish are probably seeking shade and cover under the brim of your hat and are hitting your lure while they're there.

That was an amazing pickerel. It's definitely qualifies for a 'skillful angler certificate'. Out of curiosity, I looked up the current state record. The current NJ record for a chain pickerel is 9 pound 3 ounces caught back in 1957.


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[Chrisper4694]

i should've weighed it but my scale was running low on battery anyway and probably wouldn't have been accurate...def wasn't 9 lbs but i wouldn't be surprised if it was in the 6-7lbs range

[Esox Luciano]

Healthy looking bag man!! That smallie pic with the clouds behind you looks awesome dude, great pic!!

[JDTuna]

Awesome fish! That pickerel probably had your 23" smallie in its belly!