Since moving here 3 years ago with my wife, we've fished the BOQ twice before for pickerel with little luck. The first attempt was in Adolphus reach, trolling deep plugs from my 15' outriggers in the fall. We caught one poor fish that was the size of the plug and didn't even pop the clips. Second attempt was mid-duck season. I was really after some brownie points, turning down a morning of hunting to take my wife out for walleye. Got in line at Sherman's and paced back and forth with the crowd. Saw a few nice fish boated, but n action for us.
Normally, spring pickerel fishing isn't open for us because I'm a worse turkey hunter than I am walleye fisherman and May is spent trying to use my tag. This year, I tagged out on the 4th day of the season. Suddenly, taking my wife out for 'eyes was an appealing option. Let's get this clear: one hunting forum member commented that I should've dragged out turkey season to avoid the "honey do list". But the #1 thing on my wife's list for me is to go fishing. She just loves it. So when a friend suggested that we head out for the opener, it was a plan in short time.
Two days before the opener, I picked up a new HDS-5 g1 from work for a steal. Spent the next two nights after work building the mount for the unit and inventing a mount for the transducer. I'm happy to say that both worked out great. Was able to move the head unit from bow to stern on the gunwale track on the boat and the transducer worked great at all speeds without having to put any holes in my boat below the waterline.
With our new equipment and some old tackle from her childhood trips to Hearst, we met up with Brandon and caravanned to the bay. I had picked out a few spots from studying the charts and we headed that way. The pair of mudmotor-powered jonboats definitely turned some heads. Unfortunately, Brandon's motor developed a loose plug in the carb that took some time to diagnose. While he tinkered, Laura and I started to drift fish. I lazily threw out a bottom bouncer with a crawler harness and laid down for a nap. Laura was casting away with a plug.
Can't hardly get a good nap in around here, 5 minutes in, my rod gets hit and I release a small pickerel. Mind you, I went into this hoping we'd catch A fish, and it was still a PB at the time, so I was happy. Threw another worm on and back to napping. A little while and I got hit hard. Was surprised by the fight as I landed a 3.5lbs, 20" 'eye. That was enough to motivate Laura to switch to bait
Over that first 2-3 hours Laura and I boated an additional 2 x 19" fish and released 2 more small ones. Also a few perch and my first drum.
Back home, black and red drum go to the table, but I hear that their freshwater cousins aren't much to eat. May have to try it on a small one sometime just to see.
I had bad impressions of walleye from my first keeper, but tonight's meal changed my mind. Seeing that Brandon and his fishing partner went pickereless last night, we invited him and his wife over to share the catch. A little lemon and seasoning and on the grill in foil. There weren't any leftovers.
So, it was a banner day for us. Maybe nothing to write home about for the seasoned pickerel fishermen, but we had a blast and are excited to do it again.
PS. We were heavily warned by everyone we know about how crowded it was going to be. I know we didn't head to the honey hole, but it wasn't bad at all. Guess years of snorkelling as boats whizz by during lobster mini season in Miami have hardened my nerves.
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