Corn pickerel

[NJ219bands]

Caught and released 10 bluegills, a musk turtle 🐢, 2 channel catfish to 8 lbs and a 20” pickerel with canned whole kernel corn on a #4 long shank gold hook and 4 lb test line and my homemade corn meal bait on a #8 red treble hook and 12 lb test line in 85 degree Gropp’s Lake this evening. The pickerel swallowed my gold hook as I was reeling in to rebait with corn. My nearly 60 year old Garcia Fish Finder line is amazing. I paid $1.89 for a 1/4 lb 3,000 yd spool at Two Guys in Bordentown. The big catfish ate my homemade corn meal bait, then fought hard for a long time before I pulled it out of a snag then beached it.