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Nice shot Alec. The water in the background is almost mirror like. A far cry from the forecast for the upcoming weekend which is calling for a Nor'easter thanks to tropical storm Noel. I snuck out last night and got a bunch of schoolie stripers on the fly. I hadn't done that in a while and it sure was fun. Fairly mild temps last night helped too. I hope to get out for some more pickerel action before I call it a season.

Well it is now 37 degrees at my house and my hands are just getting back to normal temperature as I try to type my report here on the new old Bass Pond forum. I have been wiping little spots of blood off everything too but it looks like that has finally stopped which is good since I don't need to be cleaning the keys. I saw a window of opportunity late this afternoon and told the wife I was going fishing at the nearby river. The water table is still at record low levels even though we have gotten some rain in the last couple of weeks including almost a half inch Thursday night into Friday. The low water during the summer into the fall caused the hydrilla to be much thicker and prevalent on the river this season compared to last only leaving a small area by the bridge pool for me to fish. My first cast into this small open area of water and I was fast to a nice healthy 14 inch pickerel. Cool . I was happy since it was already one more fish than I had expected this weekend. After a few more casts with no more signs of life I start thinking about moving. Not to many options due to the weeds and low water but the path thru the non native invasive rice weed along the waters edge indicates someone has been going further downstream so I decide to follow. The one problem spot along the trail is an entrance to a small off shoot side pool and while squishie it is just crossable in hiking shoes. Once past this point I discover I am clear to the spot I decide to set my sights on to try for though I have never before reached on foot before only by water. After a little hiking and a little bushwacking I am standing at ground zero. This small river is very fertile and has an abundant amount of forage due to the herring that run up it and spawn in the spring. I have seen some incredibly large pickerel while kayaking the river but have yet to tie into one. Upon arriving at the chosen spot I start with some short casts directly across the deep oblong slow moving pool with my Mickey Fin. My first several casts produced nothing. On about the fourth or fifth cast the line stops dead with that familar feeling and in an instant I am tight! A short fight ensues and I beach what turns out to be a real beauty of a Calico! I gently release it after admiring the beautiful size and markings. Then I cast directly across the small pool to the same area and in short order I am tight again. A second calico just as beautiful but a little smaller. Excited to be into some nice fish I continue to work this spot for a short while landing several calicos a couple of beautiful yellow perch (one quite large actually). Then changing my focus to down stream I get slammed. Right away I know by the freight train hard hit and tell tale initial lunge I am hooked up to an agressive pickerel. This guy put up a heck of fight on the vintage Orvis Fullflex glass 6wt and had me working hard to keep him out of the weeds and on the end of my line. But in the end I did manage to work him in to me and I could not believe the size of the belly on this fish as I hoisted him upward. This was nice 18 inch pickerel that looked like it had swallowed a hamster and it was still going after more! Wow. The freight train hard hit was evidenced by how deep the fly was found in the back of its mouth! It was quite a job to get him to settle down and remove the fly. I had to flip him upside down while layed gently in some grass and grab the lower jaw from outside it's mouth underneath and pry open the serrated vise like jaws while trying to remove the hook. And of course he squarmed out of my grip and my thumb slipped into it's mouth such that my thumb was quickly punctured square in the center by one of it's largest teeth . Now I have a steady stream of blood coming while I finish the extraction and send him on his way. At this point I am getting cold and my hands getting quite numb but decide to press on for just one more fish. Who knows if I will get out again I think. So I move several yards down stream occassionally sucking the pool of blood off my thumb. I cast down stream and then begin working a series of fan casts until I am casting directly across the pool. I am taking breaks between every couple of strips to suck the blood off my thumb to keep from getting it all over everything. This particular cast I did two strips and stopped sucked and then stripped again when I see a large swirl and my rod tip dove downward in the blink of an eye. This time the take was not quite as hard and obvious as to its origin but decidly a large fish by the ruccous on the end of my line. I strip line and lift my rod at the same time but taking care not to pop the tippet in my excitement. The vintage Orvis Fullflex is laboring under this fishes pull and the fish is definetely in control of this battle. I just hang on and let him run trying to guide him away from the weeds the best I can. Being cold the battle isn't long and I am able to guide him back up river to my spot gently gliding my prize to shore. As I slide the magficent fish out of the hydrilla I see it is one of the largest chain pickerel I can ever remember catching on a fly rod! And me without a camera. Doh! The fish was gently lip hooked so it was an easy operation to remove the fly thankfully and then I lay my rod along side to get the length gauged. Then I scooped the magnificent pickerel up which required two hands and slide it back into the river. Upon arriving home I went strait to the tape measure and taped out the locations on the rod. 20&3/4" overall. What a fish! So it isn't too late here in the Northeast. Get out there while you can....