For a rare midday outing, I selected a pair of pools separated by a tube allowing me to cover two areas while only launching the boat once. The aim was to add a couple more ten-pound Top 5 limits as both were lacking a quality bite or two. The Top 5 weights on the pools were 8-2 and 8-8, respectively.
Stats
Date: July 6
Location: Hennepin Canal (two pools)
Time: 11:45am-3:10pm
Totals: 4 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy/breezy/brief rain, 79-82F
Lures: Booyah Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 1 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (natural red) – 1 bass, War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) – 1 bass, 5” Senko wacky rig (blue pearl/black hologram) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-3 Frog
Only one bass at 12” or better
Starting Lineup
Good timing on the rain as a shelter was in close proximity
Tune of the Trip
“Ooh, a storm is threatening, my very life today. If I don’t get some shelter, ooh yeah, I’m gonna fade away.”
Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones (1969)
Okay, so maybe not quite that extreme but I did get some shelter in a tube running under the county road to avoid a downpour for about ten minutes. Worse than the storm were the spiders.
Notes and Nonsense
Late Start – My initial plan to get up around 4:15am fell by the wayside as I decided to sleep in for the second day in a row. However, I did not want to miss out on a fishing opportunity, so I opted for the rare summer midday trip. So much for beating the heat with such a stunt as it was steamy.
Clumsy and Lethargic – In terms of those two terms, I was “clumsy”, and the bass were “lethargic.” Fatigue gets the better of me some days and this was one of them. When worn out, the motor skills and focus suffer. When hitting on all cylinders and having free range of motion when fishing solo, I can drop in a spinnerbait with barely a ripple, put a frog where frogs shouldn’t go, and backhand a Senko into a narrow slot in the weeds. On this outing, I was both long and short on casts along with several snags but fortunately not in any of the abundant poison ivy lining the banks. Coupled with the “bathwater” in the shallow slow-moving Canal making the bass lethargic, catching was a struggle.
1:02pm – All-time Canal Bass #900 on a Senko wacky rig
Bass #900 – One highlight of the day was landing Bass #900 all-time from The Canal. It was not a very impressive specimen but they all count. I have my sights set on Canal Bass #1000 and it is realistically in reach before the year is done.
Top 5 Update Pool One – Two bass landed and neither large enough to provide a boost means that the Top 5 Weight remained at 8-8 (2-12,1-10,1-10,1-8,1-0).
1:27pm – Top Bass at 2-3 (16″) on a frog
Top 5 Update Pool Two – Two bass landed with one at 2-3 to provide a Top 5 boost from 8-2 (2-1,1-10,1-8,1-8,1-7) to 8-14 (2-3,2-1,1-10,1-8,1-8) as it culled a 1-7. The 2-3 also represented my largest bass on the pool to date.
A slow summer day and a tough bite but I was glad that I got in gear and hit the water even though I was not at the top of my game. My first assessment was that the bass were not on the top of their game either. However, after thinking about it perhaps they were. After all, I suppose that their objective is to not get caught. Talk to you later. Troy