Several years ago I first heard about chain pickerel, a species related to northern pike; until then I'd never realized that we had a pike species in Texas. According to TPWD pickerel fishing is a predominantly wintertime activity, spanning from the first strong cold front of the year until March or April. Spawning usually occurs between December and February meaning the fish are shallow when many other Texas species have gone deep. These fish are found in the northeastern portion of our State, in lakes such as Daingerfield, Hawkins, and Caddo. I'm yet to find a comprehensive list of Texas lakes containing pickerel, but those three have confirmed populations.
My interest was further piqued when I read a post by Casey Ryan on his blog, 2FlyFish4, in 2015. Casey provided some wonderful information and guideline to follow. December and January being duck season, though, it was two more years before I finally made it out to fish for these pickerel.
This past weekend was a long New Year's weekend, so I knew most of my local duck haunts would be covered in hunters. The weather was forecast to be unusual: 43F at sunrise, 45F at noon, and 42F at sunset. My first thought was to try some striper fishing at Texoma but the wind was supposed to pick up to 10-12mph out of the north, which makes for a rough lake and more than I want to tackle in my little kayak, so I turned my gaze eastward.
Caddo seemed too far to drive, Hawkins seemed a little too exposed to the wind, so Daingerfield it was. The forecast temperatures were the same as Grapevine but the wind was only supposed to top out at 7 miles an hour, with a constantly overcast sky, perfect conditions for shallow kayak fishing.
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| Daingerfield State Park |
Daingerfield is a beautiful park, as most East Texas parks are. There's a beautiful mix of pines and hardwoods. Remnants of fall color were everywhere and you could easily imagine how vibrant they must have been only a month ago. Entry is only $4 for the day and there is a nice little concrete launch by the nature center.
After launching my kayak I fished the cove immediately east of the ramp. I'd brought both fly and traditional setups. Fishing first with the fly rod I had a strike on only my second cast. Reading that these fish spawned in submerged aquatic vegetation I focused on areas with lily pads. Casting into the pads and pulling the fly through them with short, sharp strips seemed to be the ticket.
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| Texas Pickerel |
For flies I used several different baitfish patterns. Size and color didn't seem to matter, as I used several different sizes, colors, and profiles, and caught fish on all of them. Catching in the pads did present a problem and the next time I go my box will be full of weedless flies.
As the day was cloudy I caught many of the fish just under the surface, but a sunny day would probably require fishing lower in the column. While several fish were caught on the fly the star of the day was a gold Rapala minnow jerkbait. This outfished the flies by a large margin.
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| Texas Pickerel |
Both the jerkbait and flies were used as a 1-2 punch. As I paddled up to an area of pads I would cast to the outer edges with the jerkbait, fishing first straight out, then down the edge. After making several casts with the jerkbait I'd get my fly rod and cast to empty pockets in the lily pads.
These pickerel are vicious strikers, hitting hard. They don't get very big, so lighter tackle is recommended if you want a good fight. I had a short 5' medium-light action baitcasting rod and 9' 6-weight fly rod and these were sporting.
In about four hours of fishing I caught around a dozen fish. I could have fished longer and caught more, but my hands finally succumbed to the cold and quit working on me. If you can sneak away for the day, and don't mind getting a little cold, you should certainly make the trip to chase these fish. The pickerel hit hard, were extremely aggressive, and the setting was beautiful.
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