Pocono Pond Pickerel

I went fishing with a couple guys on Thursday with the plan to fish the Francis E Walter dam.  Prior to leaving I looked at the flow gauge online and saw the water was moving at 4000 cfs compared to the normal 1000.  After arriving, we took a look at the dam and decided against fishing there and instead went to see what the small ponds nearby could produce.  I did not look at the weather forecast for up north and did not expect it to be 20º colder than it would be back at home.  Combined with rain, wind, and shorts, I was cold quickly but still fished the whole day.

We tried the pond at the north end of Walter Des Road (I heard it was called Stick Pond).  We quickly found Zoom super fluke were the lure of choice in any color for the pickerel.  Walking around the pond and casting were we could netted us roughly 10 picks between us and a 13" largemouth.  After fishing most of the exposed shore line we went to a series of three private ponds.  I only managed one pickerel here and lost two of the bigger ones of the day.  This taught me that although the pickerel is small, they still have teeth that can cut through fishing line like it was a spider web.  The guys I were with made out with two more largemouth and seven or so more pickerel landed the largest being 23".

The pickerel were all very agressive strikes from quickly walking the dog near the surface.  Some fish missed the lure three times, but with continued retrieve finally found the hook.  We probably had short strikes on twice as many fish we caught resulting in our flukes getting a few new holes in their tails.  Two of the bass hit the fluke within 3 seconds of hitting the water before we even got a chance to twitch the lure.  The third was caught in 6 feet of water on a Senko.

Black tears

Sunset

Another toothy critter

After such success with the fluke, I still wanted more pond action on Friday so I went to a pond that apparently only exists in my faulty memory.  After finding out that there was never a pond there I hit up a section of the East Branch Perkiomen I haven't fished before.  I didn't have my waders, and it was much too cold to wet wade so I fished from shore and pulled 3 smallmouth 8, 10 and 15 inches, losing a few more.  I believe that 15" is my second best for the East Branch and a respectable fish out of any water.

Fat Perkiomen Smallmouth

Wooo! Underwater camera!

Those pickerel made me miss catching northern pike up north where I never fish without a leader.  I may have to add another trip to my to-do list.