I am out fishing with the boys tonight and I just caught a monster pickerel (walleye)! We took a couple of photos and measurements and released it quickly. We would have weighed it, but we did not want to take the extra time to do it. It needs to spawn and let someone else catch it.

A pickerel this big in Vernon Lake is RARE. Catching any pickerel here (walleye) is unusual!

We measured it at 25.5 inches with approximate weight at 5 to 7 lbs.

It was a dark fish - as the photo shows. For those of you who like details, we were trolling in 20 feet of water. I was bringing my line in as a courtesy for the guy beside me who thought he had a fish on. When I brought my lure up to the boat, I placed my rod down to grab the net for the ‘incoming’ fish. The fish turned out to be a chunk of weed. As I picked up my fishing rod to cast out again, this pickerel inhaled the Rapala Taildancer right at the boat - beside the running boat motor! A nice fight followed and that brings us to the top of this post.

Below, is the diving Rapala Taildancer (colors same as picture) that I caught the pickerel on. It was a new spring addition to my tackle box an it is quickly becoming my ‘go to’ lure when the fishing gets slow. In Lake Temagami, I caught some nice bass and pickerel with this guy. I kept up with the live bait guys in the boat with a 1:1 ratio. Out of the box (and on regular monofilament), I could get this lure down to 17 + feet. That was with large amount of line in the water during a troll.

Think about adding one to your box. Apparently, this pickerel (walleye) wanted it bad!

*From my Muskoka Outdoors Blog