Syracuse.com - Jamesville boy catches nice pickerel in Erie Canal near Fayetteville

[HuntingNY-News]

He, his grandfather and a friend caught some nice largemouth bass, the biggest being 17 inches. The young angler also hooked and lost a 30-plus inch northern pike.

Submitted photo

Nathan Shimer, 14, of Jamesville, holds up an 18-inch chain pickerel that he caught recently while fishing on the Erie Canal near Fayetteville.

He wrote: "It was an overcast sky, with a temperature of about 75 degrees. My grandfather and I had been at the Canal since 6:45 AM, which is usually when we start fishing.

"We soon met up with a friend who biked from his house to fish with us, and by eight o'clock, we had already managed to land some nice largemouth bass, the biggest being 17" and about 3.5 pounds.

It was about 8:30 when the pickerel hit. I was using a 7" ribbontail Berkley Power Worm in Tequilla Sunrise color at the time that was rigged weedless and weightless on a number 2/0 Gamatasku EWG worm hook.

"I was flipping the worm next to some thick rooted vegetation when the fish shot out of the weeds and just took off with my worm. After it was hooked it fought for about 3-4 minutes before I was able to lift it over the bank.

" I then measured it and my grandfather took the attached picture. Afterwards, the fish was safely released. It was the biggest pickerel that I've ever caught on the canal.

"However, if things had gone well a few weeks before this fish was caught, then you would be looking at a 30+ inch pike that I hooked in the Canal.

"Unfortunately, this fish didn't cooperate and ended up stripping 50-70 yards of ten pound line off of my reel before giving a massive throbbing headshake that straightened one of the same heavy-duty hooks mentioned above.

"Of course, I lost the fish. But I guess you just can't catch 'em all!"

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog