I'm in NC. When we dip net heavily vegetated areas in the spring we always catch baby pickerels. They are usually in water that seems to shallow for fish and 1.5" long. Mostly when we find the young the water is around 45F. I would suggest to try dip netting similarly heavily vegetated areas with slow/no current near you in the spring. I kept one a few years back and he turned out to be a red finned pickerel. Awesome fish! Good luck on your search.