For August, I am going to go back to individual fishing reports for my trips to The Canal as the wrap-up for July was so lengthy it spilled over into two parts. Both of those were each lengthy as well. In addition, I will continue providing a month end look at overall results. More content is always the goal as time permits.

Stats

Date: August 8
Time: 5:20pm-8:05pm
Totals: 15 bass (5.45 bass/hour)
Weather: Overcast/breezy 75F
Lures: Special K Spinnerbait (bold bluegill) – 9 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 3 bass, 5” Yamamoto wacky rig (natural shad) – 2 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-4 Senko
Top 5 Weight: 7-6 (2-4,1-13,1-4,1-1,1-0)

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

Shared Space – As I approached my first-choice spot, a pair of kayaks were launching so I drove to an alternate area. However, the aquatic vegetation was not to my liking, so it was back to my first stop. The Canal is unique in that you just can’t go to the opposite side of “the lake” on a ninety-foot-wide fishing hole. I asked the duo if I could pass and let them know I would get well out of their way. As such, I rowed over half a mile away before I even made my first cast. A third kayak later joined, and I passed all on my eventual way back to the ramp. All’s well that ends well, as everyone reported landing some bass during our passing chats.

5:55am Red Eye Shad 1-13

Something New – I fly blind when I fish in terms of a depthfinder although I do not know how much of a benefit such technology would be on the shallow waters of The Canal anyway. Instead, it is visual observation dependent on water clarity or using lures to get a feel for depth changes. On this trip clarity was such that I could discern where there was a clean break to the channel between the weed lines on each side of The Canal. In this case, I ran a Strike King Red Eye Shad along the break and was rewarded with my runner-up Top Bass of 1-13. I successfully hit the same stretch with a different lure on a later trip but that catch is for another report. The takeaway is that I was proud of myself for trying something new and pleased that it worked. Perhaps I should expand my offerings more often.

8:05pm Top Bass at 2-4 on last cast

Best for Last – My Top Bass came on my final cast of the evening proving that you need to hang in there until the very end as you never know when a good one will show up. I even mentioned on my GoPro video at 8:05pm that I was making my last cast. Makes for a good story at least, and you’ll have to trust me on this one as the video is a bit revealing so not sure if it will see public release.

 

Another solid few hours on The Canal as the hits keep coming. Having reached the 200 bass mark from the waterway to end July, I am looking forward to just how many cooperative bass I can find before the year is over. Two more trips are already in the books so stop back by for those reports. Talk to you later. Troy