With colder weather here for good (at least until spring, that is), it is time to switch gears. While I can usually catch panfish as long as there is open water, I tend to set my sights on other species when things cool down. That usually means pickerel if I am fishing close to home. I also do A LOT of trout fishing this time of year, but that involves a full-day commitment. When there is just an hour or two to spare, pickerel are just the ticket. Fortunately, I live in an area where these fish are plentiful.

A pickerel can’t resist a big streamer, especially if it resembles one of its favorite foods - perch!

My favorite way to target pickerel during the warmer months is with topwater flies. Pickerel are suckers for frog patterns! However, when the weather cools down, it is time to change tactics. My go-to flies are streamer patterns. While there are many effective streamer patterns to choose from, my favorite streamers are those that imitate yellow perch. Yellow perch are an important forage fish for chain pickerel and their larger pike and musky cousins.

If your waters don’t contain yellow perch, sunfish imitations will often do the trick. Don’t hesitate to throw perch patterns, they will still work!

Not every watershed in my area contains yellow perch; some have the standard bluegill/crappie/largemouth mix. In waters with no yellow perch, my go-to streamers usually imitate small sunfish. However, my perch flies still do extremely well on pickerel, even if yellow perch are not present in the system. In waters where yellow perch are common, they are absolute killers!

Small yellow perch are a forage fish for toothy predators like pickerel.

This particular perch pattern is easy to tie and can be scaled up or down to meet your needs. The fly has great movement in the water, all the right colors, and just a touch of flash. You can tie it with lead eyes to help get the fly down or keep it light to probe the shallows by using a Fish Mask. I imagine the fly would work well without eyes, but I believe eyes on subsurface flies are a vital triggering mechanism, and I always include them. When tying larger flies, I use Semperfli's Extreme String for the fly's body. I will use Semperfli Ice Straggle Chenille for smaller versions of the pattern. For tiny versions, Straggle String or Straggle Legs will fit the bill.

Fresh off the vise the fly does not look much like a perch. The magic happens once the fly gets wet!

Be warned the fly will look like a hot mess when it comes off the vise. That's okay. The real magic happens when the fly gets wet. The fly will change its appearance from a saucer-shaped, sunfish-looking fly to a sleek, perch-looking profile. This is because marabou moves in the water like no other material. The marabou wing will compress when wet, but the Extreme String body will give it just enough support to create a great-looking perch-like profile.

A cupful of permanent markers are always within reach on my tying desk.

I always have a coffee cup filled with permanent markers of my fly tying desk. They get put good use on this pattern. While the fly looks great right out of the vise, a touch-up with added color adds the finishing touch. I like to add a little red at the front of the fly (another trigger), and I also add some barring on the dorsal area to match the coloration of a yellow perch. I will extend those bars halfway down the side of the fly as well, making sure it gets into the Extreme String.

A pickerels teeth will reduce a fly to shreds in short order, so build them strong! I use a lot of superglue during the construction to offer some protection against those teeth.

Since the teeth of a chain pickerel are notorious for tearing up flies and marabou is not the sturdiest of materials, I tend to use a lot of superglue to construct the fly. I apply it to thread wraps where ever I can to securely lock the materials down. When the tooth of a pickerel inevitably cuts a strand of thread, the rest of the fly will remain intact with this treatment.

A pickerel’s mouth spells trouble for light tippets. Heavy fluorocarbon or light wire bite tippets are a must.

After spending 10 minutes or so at the vise tying this fly, you don't want to lose it to the first fish you hook. Pickerel have mouths full of razor-sharp teeth that can make quick work of a lite tippet. I have found that a bite tippet of 20-pound fluorocarbon is generally sufficient to prevent bite-offs, but you will have to inspect the bite tippet after every strike (whether you hook the fish or not) and replace it where needed.

The Marabou Perch

Materials List:

Hook: Firehole 811 or 860 streamer hook sizes 6-2 or Firehole 801, 802 or 803 for sizes larger than size two

Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed thread 6/0

Weight: Lead dumbbell eyes (optional)

Tail: Marabou feathers - olive over yellow

Flash: Semperflash (4 strands down each side of tail)

Body: Semperfli Extreme String - yellow

Wing: Olive marabou (2 feathers tied in one in front of the other) for larger flies use extra select marabou to get the length you need.

Throat (belly): Yellow marabou (2 feathers tied in one in front of the other)

Head: Flymen Fishing Co. Fish Mask (optional - omit if using lead eyes) with Dragon Eyes

Coloration with permanent markers:

Dark olive on the top dorsal area
Black bars over top extending down the sides (get markings into extreme string body material as well)
Red throat and head (I love a little red on my streamer patterns)