Up here the Pickerel can be found by Cattails and other tall reed areas. The first spawning Pickerel have been caught very soon after ice out. 

I think all fresh water fish like to relate to cattails…..the most cattails I’ve ever seen in one area surrounds an oxbow off the North river in coastal NC….with so few trees hurricanes and Nor’easters lay down the lone cypress trees often adjacent to these cattails making fish magnets…..we named one free after my friends wife who loved anchoring by one tree in particular, hundreds of fish from different species over the years…..I found it in 1998 and just the trunk remains now but fish are always there….Coppernose have nested in the decaying limbs for years and crappie hug the wood year round….always a confident fishing place…..