Chestnut Hill Reservoir Fishing Report

A Pickerel & A Perch

Went out today around Noon-3pm. The weather was partly cloudy with gusts of wind. I primarily worked a 3 inch. Orange & Yellow curl tail grub on a VMC Neon Moon eye Vertical jig. I also fished a Zoom Super salt plus Magnum finesse worm watermelon red rigged wacky. I was on this lure that got my first bite of the day. However, because it was a circle hook tied to mono I could get a secure hook set so the fish struggled off. I changed things up a bit and moved around some but then I went back to the same spot where I lost the fish and threw the Curl tail grub on moon eye jig. After about 7 casts, it was fish on with a solid hook set. It was a Pickerel and strong one at that. I have been catching pickerel all season long but this is the best fight I have had from one of them yet. This fish set me drag screaming at least five times! I just kept the pressure on him and let him go. After about 5 minutes I was able to get him heads up toward me so that I could net him and release him. When he saw me down by the waters edge he dashed off into the weeds, so I had to pull him out of the water weeds and all. He weighed around 2 lbs and was 18 inches in length. Took a quick picture and then proceeded to remove the hook. Then while I am working on the fish as fast as I can to unhook him, this women comes up to me: "Hello, Hello?", "What?", What kind of fish is that?", "A pickerel.", "Oh". So remove the hook from his bony jaw and using the net I return him to the water to fight another day.
I move to another spot to avoid catching the same fish twice and continue to work the orange curl tail grub. I use a swimming retrieve and let it fall to the bottom occasionally. That is when the yellow perch attacked. The perch swallowed the grub tail first. Fortunately the fish was hooked at the top of the mouth so I was able to remove the hook without too much trouble.

After I put him back the bite seemed to shut off. The sky got dark and the wind picked up. I finished off by throwing the silver spoon but had no takers.

• Added By: thorn168 on 11/13/11 03:59 PM
• Location: Chestnut Hill Reservoir
• Report Date: 11/13/2011
• # of Hotspots: 1
• # of Photos: 2
• # of Fish Caught: 2
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