I don’t think they get much bigger than a foot. I used to catch them in Connecticut when I was a kid. Chain pickerel were better as they would often break 20". I would catch them quite a bit while largemouth fishing.
Yeah, grass pickerel don’t get much more than a foot or so like you said. I wasn’t after a “big” one either, I just wanted to add the species to my list. My buddy caught three of them that day before I finally caught one just before dark. Was getting pretty nervous. It’s about a 3 hour drive over there for me. So I was glad to finally check that one off. And yes it probably takes a special kind of crazy to drive 6 hrs round trip to try and catch a 7 inch fish. I won’t tell you how many times I tried before this trip either lol [crazy]
Chain Pickerel is the last one I need now, then I’ll have all the Esocids, or at least all the North American ones anyway…
It kind of makes you wonder why somebody bothered bringing grass pickerel all the way out there since they don’t get very big. I was pretty surprised to see rock bass and pumpkinseed in quite a few places in Washington. Personally I’m happy about it since they’re fish I have fond memories of from my childhood, but they seem like odd choices.
I will give Washington that, there are a lot more opportunities for different species compared to northern Utah/southeast Idaho. I’ve got a bunch of fish to add to my list that I’ve never had a chance to catch before. All the saltwater ones and the salmon will be new. Plus I’ve never caught shad, warmouth or coastal cutthroat, so I’ll add them to the list. Oh and Dolly Varden and Bull Trout are on my list as well. I’m excited to start exploring soon.
Nice! Sounds like you’ll have your work cut out for you. It’ll be fun for sure!
If you figure out how/where to get a warmouth, I’d love to hear about it. I still need to catch that one.
Sadly I’ve only been out once, and it was over a month ago! It’s been warm here, though I think some of the higher elevation lakes are probably ok still.
Is that a brook trout? If so, good color, how long was it?
I’ve been out 5 times so far tomorrow will be 6. We have caught some nice browns up to 23" and some decent perch, up to 11" but nothing great so far.
Yep, about 15 inches or so. Was the first fish of the day. thought I was on to something, as I was trying a new lake. But unfortunately all the rest of the brookies I caught that day were little stunted 6-10 inchers.
Probably going to try my other brookie lake on Friday. It has some bigger ones, so we’ll see. I’ll keep ya posted
There are both hatchery triploid and wild kokanee in Roosevelt. The hatchery ones seem to run smaller from what I’ve seen, maybe 12-14 inches or so. the wild ones get really nice. I’ve seen plenty over 20 inches, but they’re harder to come by in the last couple years thogh.
I’m afraid I can’t be of too much help fishing for them though. I’m not much of an open water kokanee fisherman. They’ve got a pretty religious following though.
