The Community Classic - Week 3

The freshwater bite was once again on this week, and the boys did their best to capitalize on the favorable conditions. Unfortunately, we all have day jobs, so most of the fishing had to be done over the weekend. The pickerel war heated up as multiple boys tried to get in on the action, while others set out to put some new species on the board.

First, Christian got a little trigger happy and tried to weigh in a 15 3/4in pickerel this past Friday. His error is twofold - we only measure to the half inch, and the 2nd largest fish at the time was clearly 16in, so this fish would’ve been worthless anyway. I’d love to dock a point for this misdeed, but in the interest of fair competition I'll let it slide.

Christian also linked up in Maine this past weekend - he had a show to play in Portland, which doubled as a convenient excuse for the both of them to combine their efforts and run the numbers up on freshwater species. He and Grady tried their best to target some trout, and Christian was rewarded with a respectable 10.5in brook trout, probably on a foam beetle or something dumb like that.

While Christian was trying to get the hang of the fly rod on the bow, Grady was deep drop jigging off of the stern. His effort was soon rewarded as he pulled up a 10.5in yellow perch, the first of the tourney. Not long after the perch, he also weighed in a 16.5in pickerel, which we agreed was just large enough to knock out Brendan’s 2nd place fish. While the catches were respectable, none of these fish are record-breakers, so overall it could’ve gone much better for the boys this weekend. The rest of us (Brendan excluded) were able to breath a sigh of relief.

Unaware of the bad news that he’d been dethroned, Brendan and his fiancee made a quick pitstop at their favorite pickerel hole during their afternoon drive around the south shore. While Breen was left empty-handed, Danielle managed to land a respectable pickerel. Though the fish isn’t tournament-eligible, we at MG Anglers would like to commend her for her efforts.

Meanwhile in PA, Chase continued his run of diverse catches over the weekend with a 6.5in sunfish, a 6in fallfish (tying my current fish) and a 7in rock bass. The rock bass isn’t eligible because it wasn’t listed on the fish register and doesn’t meet the 12in or greater criteria to be newly-listed. Still, that’s a fun new fish!

Also in Pennsylvania, Declan took the Kayak out on sunday for some lounging, beer drinking and general tomfoolery, and bumbled his way into catching a 9.5in white crappie along the way. A few days later, he also managed to sneak in some weekday fishing and was rewarded with a 2nd place yellow perch at 10in. Good effort Dec!

And myself? I’m afraid that this past weekend I got totally skunked. I checked a few recently stocked ponds in the area and even tried to hit up my secret panfish hole, to absolutely no avail. However, I’ve got a solid plan for this weekend that might be just the ticket I need to catapult me onto the podium. Tune in next week to see how that goes for me, and thanks for reading!

-Max