Bucketmouth Bliss

Last Friday my friend Bob Close and I made a bit of a study of chain pickerel in Virginia and found that the highest reported concentration of them in Virginia was in Little Creek Resevoir in Toano, Virginia.   I rode the bus home and determined that I would give pickerel a try.  I happily found James up for a Saturday adventure so we headed south on 95 for the 2-hours schlep towards Toano (near Williamsburg).  

No Jokes please ....at least I caught something

We arrived at 0900, paid our launch fee and got some free advice from the tidewater native running the launch/bow/fishing/hunting/taxidermy shop.  There was a fleet of bass boats there but the fella told us that if we stayed in the skinny water and shallow we might have luck with the pickerel.  We launched and began prospecting with spinning rods and floating rapalas planning to locate the pickerel then turn over to long rods. Unfortunately the wind was up, the water was deeper than we anticipated and shallow, sheltered coves with structure were few and far between.  I also wonder if the cold snap the night before might have turned off the shallow pickerel bite.   I did catch one pickerel and had several follows, but the fish of the day went to James.  

Bucket-mouth bliss

He got tired of chucking the rapala so he rigged a gaudy, yellow deep-diving crank bait and sure enough caught a log that began moving and turned into a handsome bucket-mouth as we neared the end of our allotted time.  The fight and the fish put a grin on my face and a smile that I'm pretty sure is still on his face.   Well done!