Had to get out as the warm weather was about to end

Following some strip mine success as the weather warmed up, I was looking to test the waters of The Canal. Well, the bass got the best of me as I continue to struggle on the waterway early in the year. I did land one bass and there’s always stories to tell from every outing, so read on for the scoop on the latest prowl.

Stats
Date: April 15
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 2:55pm-5:10pm
Totals: 1 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with a BPS XPS double tail grub trailer (Houdini) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-0

Winning Lure

Notes and Nonsense

Reports – I not only prowl The Canal in the real world but also on the world wide web and social media. One talented Canal angler was posting topwater (Whopper Plopper) catches to the west. Another reliable source was reporting nothing on power techniques to the east but slowed down with some plastics and had success. From even farther east came reports of solid catches on a spinnerbait by a talented young lady angler. The latter lure posted my lone catch but beyond that, I couldn’t get anything going from top to bottom.

Slime – Later this spring, I will have two years of Canal experience in the books. One observation that sticks out is the progression of vegetation. The bulk of the stretches that I prowl are shallow, even for The Canal. As such, it doesn’t take long before aquatic vegetation becomes a factor in presentations. Surface vegetation is already emerging but not to the point of effecting lure options for shoreline cover. However, the green slimy stuff has taken hold in the stretch that I fished on this outing. Many casts came back to the boat with the nasty, snotty goo fouling the lure. Such is the life of a Canal angler.

You’d think a guy would look a bit happier when avoiding a shutout

Batting 1.000 – After two hours without a strike, I finally got a hit within sight of my truck as I neared the end of my day. A spinnerbait crawled around a laydown came through unlike dozens of similar casts over the afternoon. That would be a miserable percentage were it a batting average. After setting the hook on my lone bite, I found myself talking to the bass as I reeled it to the boat, encouraging it to stay hooked. Luck and a solid hookset were on my side as the bass came aboard to avoid an embarrassing shutout. To look on the bright side, in terms of bites, I wound up with a “batting average” of 1.000.

Sunlight and a smudge, not the best clip but it’s all I’ve got

 

While it wasn’t my day, I left the water recalling a bit that I used to hear on the old Bassmaster television programs in the 1980s as we were getting hooked on our hobby. The host would offer up that while many in the field were struggling, “somebody, somewhere, is finding some fish” (or something like that, it was a long time ago). Here’s hoping that next time out, I am a “somebody.” Talk to you later. Troy