I had not been feeling well but I couldn’t pass up a chance to get on the water for a couple of hours on a decent mid-March evening. After all, it was March 16, which was my prediction for the first bass of the year as noted in the January 6 text exchange below with my friend, John Kirkemo. Fortunately, the monkey was off my back with a March 3 bass to get me on the board. Therefore, there was no pressure on this trip, and it turned out to be my best outing so far.

Stats
Date: March 16
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 3:50pm-5:50pm
Totals: 6 bass
Weather: Partly cloudy/very windy, 52F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: Z-Man Chatterbait (sexy shad) with a BPS Speed Shad trailer (pro blue) – 5 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (red craw) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-6 Chatterbait
Top 5 Weight: 8-7

3:50pm – First cast bass at 1-14 (15″) on a chatterbait

Notes and Nonsense

Young Anglers – I had company on the stretch that I selected for this outing. Four young boys were prowling the bank after a parent had dropped them off at the lot. I thought that was cool and took a minute to talk with a couple of them, complimenting their lure choices. From the looks of it, I must be doing something right as these boys also had a chatterbait and a lipless crankbait on their poles. I also left them with a few of my blog “business” cards. So, if you guys are out there reading, good luck and perhaps we’ll cross paths again.

The setup for a bike and hike outing

First and Last – It isn’t often that you land your two best bass of a trip on your first and last casts. A first cast bass can sometimes be seen as a curse as no matter how your day turns out, it’s technically all downhill from there in terms of percentages. But, hey, I’ll take a first cast bass every day as I am only mildly superstitious. As far as a last cast bass, you can kind of make that happen. And that is what took place on this outing. I was near the truck, had perhaps ten more minutes to fish, and had just landed my best bass of the day at 2-6. Most outings I like to push my time on the water as long as possible (or sometimes longer than I am supposed to), but I found this catch to be a good bookend bass and called it quits.

 

 

The Usual Suspects – Five of my six bass came off wood cover: four from submerged logs and one from a laydown. The sixth fish hit in the middle of The Canal after a cast to a point. Classic early season spots and I hit every one of these targets as I make my way down The Canal and often hit them again on the way back to my truck. Of course, not every spot produces a bite every time but sufficient feedback from the bass proves that these spots are winners.

5:50pm – Last cast bass at 2-6 (16.5″) on a chatterbait

Another successful couple of hours on the water as 2024 is off to a solid, early start. As noted in the introduction, I predicted a first bass on March 16. The six bass on this trip boosted my yearly total to eighteen bass. Not too bad considering that the previous three years had seen a total of only ten bass during the entire month of March. And the early season bass were not done yet as I have several more March reports to come. Talk to you later. Troy