Blue Pickerel/Walleye Photo by Dave Chaston

Close-up of tail - photo by Dave Chaston

Nice work Dave and thanks very much for the photos! Anybody else catching these?

UPDATE: September 4, 2010 – There is a discussion on blue pickerel over at the OFN forums -CLICK HERE-

First catch of the night - walleye

We are not exactly sure what initiated the fish’s return to the lake. It has been said that a dam upstream broke or water levels peaked causing the pickerel to escape from lakes further upstream the watershed. Whatever happened, I dare say the walleye are making a welcome return comeback into my favorite lake.

I should have felt the winds of change into our favour when dad asked to stop and buy some worms before we hit the water. Any event that rarely happens unless we are taking the kids fishing.

As the sun began to set, we trolled around to the dark side of a Vernon island and hit a 12 foot stretch of water. That was when dad’s walleye rig, with a golden spinner and worm, began to shine. Within a few minutes he had hooked, netted and released two 16″ – 18″ walleye. The walleye would have made excellent meals, but we wanted to ensure that these spawning sized fish would help their species’ make a comeback.

Dad's second fish

We trolled back and forth in the 12-foot trough and had numerous near ‘catches’ and several worms slurped off the hook. I tried using a white Gulp twister tail in place of worm, but the pickerel did not seem to bite at it with the same intensity as the worms.

This night, at least, the pickerel enjoyed staying at 12-feet. Anytime we ventured out of this zone, the fury stopped or slowed. The surface temp was 66F and troll speed was set at 5 on the Minn Kota dial.

I hope to see you all out there this summer. We’ll be hovering off an island point to the left – legend hunting!

12lb walleye from Bay of Quinte - Caught by Kyle Billingsley

My cousin Kyle has been hard water angling this winter.  I recently became aware that he hooked into a huge of Bay of Quinte pickerel. I don’t have many details yet, but his wife tells me he was jigging for the behemoth that weighed in at 12 lbs! Great job Kyle! Thanks for the photo Di.

Muskoka Outdoors visitors – I would love to post pictures of the fish you have been catching through the ice this year. Email them to me using the Contact  link below.

New friend and co-worker, Erin, shared these 2 fish photos with me. She caught this beautiful lake trout this spring in Lake Muskoka. Specifically (and it was all she would share with me), she hooked into this lake trout at “The Kettles” while using a jig head and minnow.

Before I could post the Lake Trout photo, Erin excitedly told me, at work, to look at the cell phone photo of this 14lb pickerel she caught last night. It was also netted and released in Lake Muskoka. The exact location still remains a ‘secret’ to Muskoka Outdoors. The pickerel fought for over a half-hour on Erin’s old and ‘questionable’ fishing line. Erin claims it was luck – but I say it was skill. Great work Erin!

I am still waiting for the details about the photo, but Brad (a good friend) is showing us his nice walleye caught in an undisclosed lake. Nice work B-Man!

Got a fish picture you would like me to post? Email it to me and I will do my best to put it up.

A pickerel this big in Vernon Lake is RARE. Catching any pickerel here (walleye) is unusual!

We measured it at 25.5 inches with approximate weight at 5 to 7 lbs.

It was a dark fish – as the photo shows. For those of you who like details, we were trolling in 20 feet of water. I was bringing my line in as a courtesy for the guy beside me who thought he had a fish on. When I brought my lure up to the boat, I placed my rod down to grab the net for the ‘incoming’ fish. The fish turned out to be a chunk of weed. As I picked up my fishing rod to cast out again, this pickerel inhaled the Rapala Taildancer right at the boat – beside the running boat motor! A nice fight followed and that brings us to the top of this post.

Below, is the diving Rapala Taildancer (colors same as picture) that I caught the pickerel on. It was a new spring addition to my tackle box an it is quickly becoming my ‘go to’ lure when the fishing gets slow. In Lake Temagami, I caught some nice bass and pickerel with this guy. I kept up with the live bait guys in the boat with a 1:1 ratio. Out of the box (and on regular monofilament), I could get this lure down to 17 + feet. That was with large amount of line in the water during a troll.

Think about adding one to your box. Apparently, this pickerel (walleye) wanted it bad!