The Redfin Pickerel

My daughter created a fishing club and they took their first outing recently.

Here's some of the results.

There were two fly rods and three ultralight spinning rods in play. The spinning with little tiny curly tail grubs on #4 were the pickerel catchers exclusively. I did get some bumps though on my fly, and caught myself a brook trout as a "consolation prize." haha. Well I think it was a triumph actually--as this creek was not stocked since March!.

https://www.instagram.com/choatefishingclub/

These little pickerel are really lively and neat looking. And they wriggle all over the place. Really difficult to catch when they fall on the ground!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZG7td8gpWM/

If you look them up, they are native to Connecticut and a close relative to the grass pickerel which lives further south and they rarely grow longer than 12." They like muddy bottomed streams, and they rarely come out to play unless the water is really low and clear, which is exactly what it was like. This stream is a torrent in the spring but a trickle in the late summer--even after the wet midsummer we had.