As October arrived, I was looking for fourteen bass to push my 2023 total to four hundred. Having a limited morning window to hit the water, I chose the proximity of The Canal for my getaway. In addition, I had neglected the old waterway for two months, so we were due to connect.

7:55pm – First Bass at 1-5 (14″) on a Whopper Plopper, part of a trend or two (read on)

Stats
Date: October 1
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 7:15am-9:45am
Totals: 8 bass
Weather: Sunny/calm, 62-77F
Lures: Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 7 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (natural red) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-14 Senko
Top 5 Weight: 7-15 (2-14,1-8,1-5,1-2,1-2)

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

Attack of the 14” Bass – It sounds like a cheesy horror movie, but the title was an accurate summation of my early bites as the first three all measured in at exactly fourteen inches. The fourth catch was only slightly larger at fifteen inches, and I did fool one other fourteen-inch fish before the morning was over. No complaints on those fish though as they certainly exceed my “keeper” definition of twelve inches (all bass released). In fact, the “keeper” rate on this outing was one hundred percent with all eight bass at or above twelve inches.

Topwater Sweep – As October progresses, the topwater bite begins to fade. So, while I had a Whopper Plopper and a Spro Flappin’ Frog in my starting lineup, I truly expected to get into a spinnerbait bite. That’s not the way it materialized as topwater presentations fooled all eight fish (seven on the Whopper Plopper and one on the Spro Frog). It is always a treat to get the surface bait bite and I appreciated them even more as they may be the last such bites of the year. Not that I won’t try it to prolong the fun, just that other presentations will be more reliable.

9:06pm – Top Bass at 2-14 (18″) on a Whopper Plopper

What a Difference a Year Makes – 2023 started off with a heavy dose of Canal fishing as I sought to explore new stretches of the waterway. Although I caught fish, my results were not as good as I had hoped so I shifted gears and invested my fishing time (and gas money) on the Knox County strip mines instead. The decision has paid off well in terms of quantity and quality, but I do miss learning on The Canal as I barely have two years of experience on the area. Plenty of stats to come during the off season but my eight bass on this outing brought my Canal total to 109 bass for 2023. That is a far cry from 359 bass last year.

 

A solid morning but I came up six bass shy of the fourteen needed to hit the four hundred bass mark. Do you know what that means? Yep, another reason to get back out there and find another half dozen bites. Stay tuned as the quest continued last weekend. Talk to you later. Troy