I readily admit that August is my least favorite open water month of the year but another solid morning on The Canal has me reconsidering. Read on for the latest fishing report in the Prowl the Canal series.
Stats
Date: August 21 (two pools)
Time: 6:40am-9:45am (3.75 hours fishing)
Totals: 10 bass (2.67 bass/hour)
Weather: Overcast/breezy 66-68F
Lures: Strike King Toad Buzz (green pumpkin with chartreuse belly) – 4 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (black) – 3 bass, Special K Spinnerbait (bleeding shiner) with Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer (root beer/pepper/green) – 3 bass
Top Bass: 3-5 Buzzbait
Top 5 Weight: 8-4 (3-5,2-7,0-14,0-13,0-13)
Notes and Nonsense
A new lure for me on this outing
New Trick – After having a large fish blow up my white Booyah Buzzbait earlier this month, I decided to try a new lure. A fishing friend who had checked out the video of the missed strike offered up that he never uses a skirt on a buzzbait. Instead, he rigs with a Strike Kind Rage Bug. As I could not find any Rage Bugs in the neighborhood, I went with the Strike King Toad Buzz as a close approximation. The new lure produced four of my ten bass including a solid 2-7.
6:46am – Toad Buzz comes through with a 2-7 (17.5″)
Old trick – While I was pleased with the effectiveness of the Toad Buzz, I felt that it did not produce enough racket in the stained water. As a result, I went back to my noisier, Booyah Buzzbait in black. The Booyah hooked three of my ten bass, one of which was Top Bass of the day at 3-5.
Near Miss – The 3-5 bass fell one ounce short of tying my all-time Top Canal bass, a 3-6 caught on July 21, 2021. It also equaled my Top Canal Bass of 2022 with the other coming on April 23 on a spinnerbait.
7:36am – Top Bass at 3-5 (19.5″), one ounce shy of my Canal Top Bass
Goals – I recently made a social media post on a local fishing group that listed my goals on The Canal (and in general). Goal number one is always to learn, whether a new fishing hole or old. Goal number two is not to get shut out. Goal number three is to land five bass at 12” or better to establish what I call a “Top 5 Weight”. The final goal is a Top 5 Weight that reaches or exceeds ten pounds. I had a good day with a weight of 8-4 thanks to a pair of “good ones” (3-5 and 2-7). However, my other three “keepers” left much to be desired and lacking a “kicker” (one more good one), I fell shy of reaching the final goal. No complaints though, as three out of four ain’t bad.
Well, August isn’t so bad after all, thanks to The Canal. I have one more August trip in the books already and weather permitting I am hoping to take one more shot before we hit September. Stay tuned for those reports and I am also hoping to work in a Top 10 Trip Tunes feature as well. It’s cool when I get to fish so much that I can’t keep up with the blog posts. Talk to you later. Troy