Up here in the Great White North, we too have some of the toothy & not so toothy critters you've mentioned. The flies I use for both smallies & chain pickerel are lt blue/white deceivers, chartreuse/white deceivers, CohoBlue(Haig-Brown salmon fly), and a saltwater Shadducer. As for topwater stuff, I use a few poppers, but they get hammered to pieces by the pickerel.An epoxy tube slider of my own design is also a favorite. I use HUGE eyes on it to push water, and for the noise. I also use 50lb Spiderwire for a bite tippet. I lost what would have been a provincial/Canadian record a few yrs ago when a huge pickerel sliced 20 lb Maxima like it was air.The deceivers are up to 3/0, usually 1/0 , and other stuff around size 1 for the smallies. My 6 wt light action rod has had many a bend in it from hungry smallies. Might just go out tomorrow!!! Jamie

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Tight Lines & Big Smiles
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