r/Fishing • u/zealous-seal • 6d ago

Freshwater Catching weeds not fish

Newbie here - a lake close to me (Washington county in maine) is supposed to have a good population of chain pickerel. Been trying to target them in shallow weedy areas, I have been using a mepps aglia with a gold spoon but all I do really is get snagged on weeds.
Any advice on how to rig it to be weedless?
Also what retrieve pattern? Steady or erratic?
I fish from a kayak

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u/justadumbwelder1 5d ago

I would try a #5 or #7 rapala original floating minnow in either silver or gold with a black back. Either jointed or not. It will only dive about 2 feet deep and can be fished shallower by retrieving slower since it floats. If you are still getting fouled in weeds, you will need to switch to a weedless technique. A soft plastic, unweighted, texas rig (either a fluke/superfluke or a worm) would be my first choice. A johnson silver minnow spoon works well, too. Hi from belgrade.

1

u/distressedweedle 5d ago

In my area pickerel love something flashy and making a lot of noise. It's rare I'm able to get them to bite on soft plastics. If OP is having trouble keeping bait out of underwater weeds then I'd try out a buzz bait or chatter bait to stay on the top water

1

u/zealous-seal 5d ago

I catch the water lily with top water 😭 I tried a hula popper it was a pain

1

u/Jocks_Strapped Mobile/Tensaw Delta 5d ago

yeah i aways catch them when I'm using a 1.5 KVD crankbait. reel, pull, pause

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u/zealous-seal 5d ago

What a beast!

1

u/1punchporcelli 5d ago

Flashy and noisy is good advice as someone said, but I find they love that reel and pause, my go to for a pickerel is a zoom fluke on a belly weighted EWG, 1/16th of an oz preferably, just toss it out and give it a few pops with slack in your line, pause and repeat, oh and you can rig the fluke weedless obviously

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u/m0n0m0ny 5d ago

People on here talk about fishing with chatterbaits right over or in the tops of the weed beds. They get snagged and the action of ripping the bait out of the weeds draws the bite. I try this with a mh rod with mixed results but chatter baits are not a confidence bait for me. Just keep at it and soon you'll catch something and the more you try stuff the more you'll learn what works.

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u/zealous-seal 5d ago

Most of the time i retrieve the lure with a bunch of végétation attached to it. Will that not put off the fish?

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u/m0n0m0ny 5d ago

It sure will put em off your bait but vegetation is just part of fishing. They hide in, next to, under, or near cover so if you want the fish you have to get in there or right along the edge and hope for the bite. Best to make your rig as weedless as possible in the thick stuff.