Finicky Pickerel Through The Ice On Super Bowl Sunday

Given that it’s like the Arctic here in the Northeast this winter, there’s not exactly much to do except hit the hardwater. This is not something I’ve done much of prior to this year, but I must say I’ve been enjoying it. On Sunday, a couple buddies and I fished a small lake in North Jersey with a big pickerel population, and we decided to record what our Marcum cameras were seeing below the hole. Turns out that a fish that’s usually ravenous can be pretty selective when it wants to. The numbers of pickerel hovering around the baits and jigs verse how many actually commited to a take was pretty wild. Most interesting to me was how intrigued they were by the camera, and how quickly a lively shiner would go completely dead when a pickerel entered the frame. Fun stuff.